DAA chief executive Dalton Philips. The DAA contended that freezing payments was ‘reasonable and proportional’. Photo: Julien Behal
DAA chief executive Dalton Philips. The DAA contended that freezing payments was ‘reasonable and proportional’. Photo: Julien Behal
More than a 1,000 airport workers won a victory at the Labour Court in their bid to be paid increments withheld from them in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Unions had claimed there were contractual obligations on the company to make the payments, that collective agreements had resulted in significant savings for DAA and the company had been in receipt of financial assistance from the Government.
A DAA spokesman said it “will consider the implications of the recommendation presently, as well as seeking any clarification from the Labour Court should this be necessary before we engage further with our employees and their representatives.”
DAA contended that freezing the payments was “reasonable and proportional” and said it was still loss-making despite improving passenger traffic. DAA gave a commitment at the beginning of the pandemic that there would be no compulsory redundancies or permanent changes to core terms and conditions and this had limited its options to contain costs, according to a recommendation published by the court.
Nevertheless, the court said that the company had only engaged in the collective bargaining structure in place for the workers after it had “unilaterally imposed” the halt on increments. The court said that it had considered “the exceptional circumstances that prevailed at the time” and recommended that the outstanding increments be paid from now and that each of the workers impacted be paid a lump sum equal to six months’ payments of the increments.
Serial technology entrepreneur Colm Piercy’s Digiweb group, a telecommunications group supplying business and consumer broadband, has sped out of a loss and into profit.
Digiweb Holdings posted a pre-tax profit of nearly €1.2m for its 2020 financial year, up from a loss of €1.1m in 2019. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) grew substantially, doubling from nearly €2.15m to over €4.28m.
The firm employed a monthly average of 141 people in 2020.
Piercy is known for his ventures in data centres and technology. He also co-founded Clyde Real Estate alongside Sean Gallagher.
It’s a long way from Mexico to Tipperary but Clonmel apparently knows how to make a fine tortilla chip. Blanco Niño, a Clonmel-based premium tortilla chip producer, was awarded Gold in the Savoury Snacking category at the Free From Food Awards 2022.
Blanco Niño’s Ancient Grain Blue Corn Tortilla Chips with Toasted Amaranth impressed the judges. “An intriguing & unique visual – great deep purple colour. Thin with a great crisp, very tasty and not overly salty” was the verdict.