Our comrades from CNT-AIT Marina Alta were ‘summoned’ via several threatening solicitor’s letters recently to attend in person their Workplace Relations Commission adjudication hearing in March. The employers’ solicitors objected to a remote hearing, even though most WRC ones these days are ordinarily held online. In addition, they made spurious claims of threats and intimidation – as if solidarity and standing up for our comrades and fellow workers amounts to trying to intimidate these extremely wealthy and powerful people.
These ridiculous and unfounded claims were refuted by our friends and comrades and the WRC disagreed with the employers and has ruled that the hearing will proceed remotely. We in Organise! will continue to support them in what is a patently clear case of unfair dismissal, unpaid wages and unregulated overtime.
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Reinstatement for comrades dismissed from Strancally Castle.
The wealthy owners of Strancally Castle in Ireland are facing a long list of demands from their domestic and maintenance workers.
The demands are as follows:
- Unfair dismissal.
- Absence of certain payslips.
- Amounts paid not shown in the payslips.
- Unlawful deduction of wages.
- Non-payment of salaries.
- Non-payment in lieu of notice.
- Mandatory overtime above the maximum allowed.
- Lack of proper weekly rest period.
- Core terms of employment containing false or misleading information.
The workers, supported by the libertarian union of the Marina Alta region in Spain, claim that they were fired for requesting a salary increase and for raising the issue of excessive overtime on the private estate, and have announced that they will fight for reinstatement.
The anarcho-syndicalist confederation CNT-AIT and its sister organizations of the International Workers’ Association have shown their solidarity with the struggling workers, and have notified the company of the initiation of an official union dispute and the organization of a range of solidarity actions. The Organise! have also given our support for the workers’ demands.
Inspectors from the Irish Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) have already confirmed payslip irregularities, certifying that the payment for overtime was made in breach of the Irish Payment of Wages Act.
The family company of the owners of the castle will have to facilitate the pay slips not delivered to the workers and regularize their salaries and taxes, and has begun a process of reviewing the payments to its large number of “domestic” workers.
In a further act of arrogance, the powerful owners of Strancally Castle, Gianni and Michael Alen-Buckley, have hired a lawyer who is appealing against the complaints of the workers, alleging that they are “not well founded”, so the rest of the workers’ demands are pending adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission.
Gianni Alen-Buckley, born Giancarla Maria Gerarda Forte, and her husband Michael are facing the self-organized working class action of anarcho-syndicalists, who have dedicated more than a century of history to fight against capitalism and for a society free of exploitation.
