Donkey Sanctuary staff to strike over restructuring plans
Welfare staff will picket the Donkey Sanctuary headquarters in Mallow in Co. Cork today over restructuring plans at the charity.
The 16 staff members are set to be replaced with four new welfare officers in two weeks' time.
SIPTU's Eddie Mullins says the union has tried unsuccessfully to engage with the company in discussions over the reasoning behind the decision.
He says they have refused to engage in talks with its members.
Mr Mullins says the restructuring is a money saving scheme.
The two-hour strike will take place today and is set to continue everyday until Friday May 30 at Liscarroll in Mallow.
Noel Carton, Head of Operations at the Sanctuary, said the company was "saddened" over the decision to strike.
"Unfortunately, a number of redundancies … were unavoidable," he said.
"We believe that the planned industrial action is entirely inappropriate to the current situation, in consideration of the open and transparent manner with which we have engaged with the welfare team to date on the issue of the upcoming redundancies."
"Furthermore, we believe that the action being proposed now by SIPTU and the negative publicity which will surround this action, could be damaging for the long term future of our Irish operation and could have a negative impact on its ability to help donkeys in need in the future."
