'Gombeen economics' - Laois wheelie bin workers to vote on strike action

Laois bin collection workers have followed through on their threat to ballot for industrial action over plans by Bord na Móna to sell off its waste and recycling wing to a private company.

In announcing the decision their trade union SIPTU also took aim at the Government for allowing a State-owned business for deciding to sell off the last public waste collection public describing it as a 'slap in the face to the midlands' and 'gombeen economics'.

SIPTU confirmed that hundreds of its members who are employed in Bord na Móna (BNM) Recycling, the country’s last publicly owned domestic waste collection service, will commence a ballot for strike action in response to what they say is a threat to terms and conditions of employment from a proposed privatisation of the enterprise.

If they vote in favour, services would likely be disrupted to thousands of households in Portlaoise, Portarlington, Mountmellick and other towns and villages in Laois.

SIPTU Divisional Organiser, Adrian Kane, claimed that management at the company that's owned by taxpayers have not convinced workers in a statement to the Leinster Express / Laois Live.

“SIPTU representatives met with the management of Bord na Móna Recycling on Tuesday (18th February). At this meeting, it was the management position that it could not offer any assurances in terms of the protection of our members’ terms and conditions of employment after the handover to a private enterprise," he said.

Mr Kane said Shop Stewards met on Wednesday, February 20.

"At this meeting it was decided that our members had no option but to commence a ballot for industrial action, up to and including strike action, in response to the threat to their terms and conditions of employment from a sale of the company," he said.

Mr Kane was withering in his criticism of Governement. 

“SIPTU has called for a full investigation into the proposed sale of Bord na Móna Recycling to a private unlimited company for an amount which has not been revealed and in a manner which provides no guarantee for our members’ terms and conditions of employment. The move will also result in domestic waste collection in our State being left solely in the hands of the private sector. This is a position that runs counter to reports by the Oireachtas, local councils, and international best practices.

“What this move amounts to is the Government’s repudiation of a so-called ‘Just Transition’ for Bord na Móna workers who have served that semi-state enterprise well for many years and were active in moving it away from peat production to other key roles. The Government approach is a slap in the face for Midlands communities and makes no economic sense.

“It shows the clear direction of travel of our current right-wing administration. That is away from the development of our economy through utilising the best of public and private enterprise towards gombeen economics, where workers rights, public benefit and environmental protection are secondary to the quick buck,”

“Our several hundred members have no option other than balloting for industrial action to protect their livelihoods. However, there is also a bigger fight on here over an economic approach which follows European best practice or one that seeks the destruction of the State’s role in the provision of key services to communities,” he said.

The ballot of SIPTU members employed in Bord na Móna Recycling will be conducted in the workplace and is expected to be completed by early March.

KWD Recycling, a Kerry-based waste company, is the preferred bidder to buy Bord na Móna Recycling. It was reported in late 2024 that the price offered €55 million.

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Bord na Móna completed a €61 m purchase of waste management company Advanced Environmental Solutions (Ireland) in 2007. It was reported at the time that the acquisition of part of Bord na Móna's strategy of diversification into waste management and power generation.

Confirming the decision to sell on February 7, the company sais the sale, if approved, would enable KWD (Killarney Waste Disposal) Recycling to expand its offering across the country and provide services to more households and businesses. It added that all employees will continue to work for the recycling business with no change to their contractual terms and conditions of employment on handover. 

Bord na Móna Recycling said it would continue to provide services as usual for its household and business customers pending regulatory approval of the transaction.

Bord na Móna was established in 1946, as a statutory body under the Turf Development Act 1946, to develop the peat resource in the Midlands and West of Ireland. Under its “New Contract with Nature” strategy, Bord na Móna is managing the transition away from its traditional peat businesses, to becoming a leading supplier of renewable and sustainable products and services.

The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is responsible for the oversight of Bord na Móna. While the company has a board and other senior management, the sole is the Minister of the Environment, who at present is Darragh O'Brien.