BREAKING…
The Unite trade union have decided to end their industrial action with immediate effect.
Their 3-day stoppage was due to continue until midnight tonight.
They have now returned to work – however Tipperary County Council say full restoration of water supply may take some days – particularly for customers at elevated locations or at the extremity of a supply network.
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Members of the Unite trade union in Tipperary and a number of other counties are being urged to call of their strike in a bid to have water supplies restored.
Upwards of 40,000 customers are without water in the Premier County as a result of issues at treatment plants.
Unite wants its members to retain their public service status in the event of transferring to Uisce Eireann while it’s also seeking clarity on age thresholds for redundancy packages.
On Tipp Today earlier Uisce Eireann Regional Operations Manager Jim Fitzgerald called on Unite members to end their strike immediately and has effectively accused them of holding the system to ransom.
“There’s 4,000 people working in water services in Ireland and about 120 of them are Unite members and in Tipperary there might be 12 to 15 Unite members.
“So we would urge them to remove the pickets to allow us to go in and do the work.”
The current dispute involving local authority staff and Uisce Éireann is having a major impact on farmers in Tipperary.
South Tipp IFA chairman Pat Carroll told Tipp Today earlier that many farmers have been without a supply for more than 24 hours now and have been unable to provide water for their livestock.
He has hit out at ongoing problems with the ongoing lack of communication from Uisce Éireann.
“The first we heard about it was on Tipp FM. There was no communication – there is no communication system in place with Uisce Éireann directly to its customers and it’s something we have a huge issue with considering we’re involved with food production. If something was to go wrong with a water supply we need a messaging service where farmers are notified immediately where water is not fit for food production or for whatever reason. And I think everyone is entitled to that to a minimum in this day and age.”
