Catholic Church threatens injunction against former employee
SIPTU has condemned a threat by the Catholic Church to seek a legal injunction to prevent a protest by a former employee outside the Church of Mary Immaculate Queen in Bearna, Co. Galway, on Sunday, 25th August.
SIPTU Sector Organiser, Adrian Kane, said: “The treatment of our member, Anne Marie Horan, by her former employer, the Parish of Bearna, has been shocking. Anne Marie was employed as Parish Coordinator by Bearna Parish for almost six years. In May she raised a number of complaints with her employer. These complaints were never investigated or given due process despite Anne Marie’s best attempts to have the issues addressed.
“When Anne Marie told the Parish Priest that she would not be in a position to meet with him until she received a commitment that her complaints would be investigated, she was informed that she was to be made redundant."
He added: “SIPTU sought a meeting with the Parish Priest and looked to have Anne Marie re-instated and the complaints investigated. At a meeting with SIPTU on 31st July, the Parish Priest flatly refused to countenance this proposal.
“SIPTU then wrote to the Bishop of Galway, Martin Drennan, seeking his intervention but regrettably the Bishop has refused to intervene. Instead SIPTU has received numerous letters from solicitors representing the Church threatening an injunction if a protest, due to take place outside Anne Marie’s former place of employment at the Church of Mary Immaculate Queen in Bearna this Sunday, goes ahead.”
SIPTU remains available for discussions with representatives of the Diocese of Galway to discuss the issues in dispute. Anne Marie Horan will be exercising her constitutional right to protest by holding a single person protest outside the Church of Mary Immaculate Queen on Sunday, 25th August.
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