British Ambassador has to boil his own egg after butler walks out on strike

The last bastion of the Perfidious Albions Imperialism in Ireland, or the British Embassy, as we now call it, was the site of outrage among what Edmund Burke called the "swinish multitude" yesterday.

The scene must have have evoked images of the Indian Mutiny for Ambassador David Reddaway as he patiently waited for his soldiers and soft-boiled egg to be brought in.

For it seemed the unruly natives had rebelled, again, against Her Majesty's man in Eire.

And even his trusted butler had joined the ranks of the rabble huddled at the gates of the plenipotentiary's plush residence in Sandyford.

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Mahmoud, who has served eight previous ambassadors, was one of approximately 40 staff who held a two-hour picket at the ambassador's residence and the Ballsbridge embassy yesterday.

Wearing a black beanie and black sunglasses, Mahmoud lived up to his discreet job description and declined to comment on why he went out in support of three sacked colleagues.

The butler, who was born in Algeria but has been in Ireland for 30 years, is banned from talking to the media by law.

The incident had left Ambassador Reddaway with a number of perplexing dilemmas, this morning.

For a start, who would pour his cup of Earl Grey, boil his egg or do whatever they do to turn bread into toast?

After all, man can't live on Ferrero Rocher alone.

It is hard to believe that this dire predicament appears to have befallen the Canadian-born ambassador because of a failure to use his diplomatic skills to resolve a dispute among his staff.

The Cambridge graduate was even forced to travel in a Special Branch car to avoid the angry mob as he slipped out of the residence shortly after 7am, because his own driver was out on the picket line.

It doesn't surprise me that he wasn't willing to face his staff, because he has turned his back on them, said union representative, Colm Quinlan of UNITE.

He told the Irish Daily Mail: "The ambassador would have prepared his own breakfast this morning because the people that would normally do this are on the picket line, as are the people that look after the gardening, the laundry and the social secretary."

He said that employees decided to strike after three staff, who are trade-and-investment advisors, were made redundant and the ambassador snubbed appeals to allow Irelands Labour Relations Commission deal with it.

An embassy spokesman said: "We have great respect for the Labour Relations Commission (LRC). But in these particular circumstances we could not accept the LRCs invitation to use their services to discuss 'proposed redundancies' since those redundancies had already taken place."

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And as pleas were made for the Taoiseach to ask the British prime minister to intervene, UNITE cranked up the pressure with a warning that there would be a union meeting on Monday to consider further industrial action.

The union also said there was a very embarrassing claim looming over how the embassy operates the income tax system, that could cost it half a million euro.

This matter has been raised in the Dail by Labour deputy Rúairi Quinn, who asked if embassies had been informed of their obligations under Irish law to treat Irish national employees as PAYE workers, giving them access to PRSI and other entitlements.

He called on Bertie Ahern to ask Gordon Brown to ensure the ambassador engages in "normal industrial relations".

But an embassy spokesman said staff were: "fully compliant on the payment of PRSI contributions and can benefit accordingly from PRSI entitlements.

"Our global policy is that we do not act as an income tax withholding agent and that locally engaged staff should take responsibility for their own tax affairs."

This is not the first time Mr Reddaway has encountered controversy in his diplomatic career.

In 2002 he was falsely accused of being a spy by Iran, which refused to accept him as a representative.

He took up his post in 2006 after Stewart Eldon was appointed to the North Atlantic Council.