Bulmers fires 8 workers over YouTube antics

By Stephen Rogers

Friday, May 09, 2008

BULMERS has fired eight of its staff for "serious health and safety breaches" that were captured on a mobile phone and published on the YouTube website.

The dismissed staff lost their jobs after footage taken at the Annerville, Clonmel, plant revealed workers wearing high-visibility vests jumping into moving forklifts, setting driverless vehicles moving across the warehouse floor before sprinting after them, spraying fire-extinguishers and somersaulting from stacks of crates onto cardboard boxes.

They even found time to hold a penalty shoot-out which was also captured in the footage.

The video on YouTube, entitled "working hard for Bulmers", was set to the tune of the mobile phone ringtone "banana phone" and lasted for 134 seconds.

According to sources in Clonmel, the video had not just appeared on the internet but had also spread very quickly around the town on picture mobile phones.

The person who put the footage onto YouTube has withdrawn it from the internet.

Shortly after the video came to light a fortnight ago, Bulmers said it would carry out an investigation and would take swift and appropriate action against those responsible.

Last night, the company confirmed they had fired the staff involved, all experienced full-time workers, and that the matter was over as far they were concerned.

"Bulmers has almost 500 staff which it must look after," said a company spokeswoman. "They work very hard to ensure the safety of their employees. Jeopardising safety of our employees will simply not be tolerated."

SIPTU, which represents the staff, said it would not be appealing the decision of the company unless asked by individual employees to do otherwise.

The decision to dismiss the staff comes just as the drinks company is preparing to enter the summer period, its most lucrative time of the year.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, May 09, 2008