Ex-traffic wardens stage protest

The wardens were dismissed last month

Traffic wardens who were sacked last month have staged a protest in Belfast.

NCP Services suspended and dismissed 25 wardens after they stopped work for half a day last month in protest at their alleged treatment by employers.

The wardens claim that the company had not addressed a range of their grievances, including health and safety at work issues.

Their protest will take place outside the company's office on May Street.

A number of the wardens also plan to protest at the headquarters of the Department for Regional Development on Adelaide Street.

The department privatised traffic warden services in 2006.

Public service union Nipsa has called for the workers to be reinstated and said NCP's (now NSL Services Group) actions were "grossly unfair and unjustified".

"These traffic attendants did not deserve to be treated as they have been," Nipsa general secretary John Corey said.

"This union is determined to do everything possible to overturn these grossly unfair and unjustified dismissals."

However, Tim Cowen of NCP said: "We believe we have acted properly throughout.

"This matter came to a head when we made a reasonable request for changes to the way our staff report sick leave and were faced with an illegal wildcat strike.

"We have a moral and contractual obligation to deliver a public service so we could not support that action."