Five PPS Newry staff to lose jobs

SDLP MLA for Newry and Armagh Dominic Bradley has expressed his anger that five members of staff are being made redundant in the Public Prosecution Service in Newry.

Commenting on the news to Newry Times, Bradley said he was ‘angry’. “I have asked PPS not to proceed with this action as I do not believe that best practice as per the Labour relations agency guidelines of May 2013 have been followed.

“This is a blatant disregard for the rights of the staff, ignoring the requirements of important employment legislation which places a legal obligation on employers to write to the employee, set out the reasons for the redundancy, meet the employee to discuss the redundancy, and to advise them of their right to appeal should they wish to do so.

“I have serious questions around the rationale and processes behind the PPS decision to make 5 people redundant in the Newry office and I am concerned that a service which we fought hard to bring to Newry is being eroded.

“I have asked PPS to call a halt to these redundancies to help ensure that the employment rights of all staff in the Newry office are being respected. I have also asked if there are to be redundancies in other regional offices and in the PPS head office in Belfast.”

Bradley said he has also been in touch with the Minister of Justice, David Ford, regarding this issue and that he intends to raise the matter in the Assembly.

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Posted by Newry Times News on Sep 30 2013. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry