MORE THAN 200 Coca-Cola workers will take industrial action next Thursday if the company goes ahead with planned redundancies and outsourcing of jobs without agreement from employees, Siptu has warned.

The union, which represents approximately 350 Coca-Cola employees nationwide, yesterday served strike notice on Coca-Cola HBC Ireland after a meeting at the Labour Relations Commission on Wednesday ended without agreement.

Coca-Cola confirmed yesterday that it would proceed with the outsourcing of jobs at its manufacturing and distribution centres in the Republic.

On June 4th, it announced that it was considering closing its warehousing and distribution facilities. It said at the time that a review of logistics infrastructure had found that the operational cost of its logistics system was “exceptionally high”. The company operates warehouse and distribution facilities in Dublin, Cork, Tuam, Tipperary, Waterford and Killarney.

The company confirmed yesterday that staff at all of the plants will be affected by the proposed outsourcing. The manufacturing plants in Athy and Ballina, which produce Coca-cola concentrate, will not be affected.

Coca-Cola HBC employs more than 1,200 people in the Republic and the North.

Siptu claimed yesterday that Coca-Cola management refused to engage with an alternative proposal made by Siptu representatives at the LRC meeting, despite having indicated that they would.

In a statement, Coca-Cola HBC Ireland said it had entered into consultation with its employees and trade union representatives and that at the union’s request, a number of alternative options to full outsourcing were considered.

“After a significant number of meetings and detailed analyses, no alternative option could be agreed and as a result, the decision has been made to proceed with outsourcing the logistics operation in Republic of Ireland.” The statement added that the union representatives “disengaged from the process before meaningful discussion could commence”.

Coca-Cola managing director Gokhan Bilgic said that employees had been offered a package of six weeks for every year of service up to €125,000 or the option to transfer to the third party logistic providers selected.

Siptu’s national industrial secretary Gerry McCormack said a letter from one of the third-party providers to Coca-Cola employees said it would be implementing redundancies when it took over the contract because the company would be over-staffed.

Coca-Cola said any industrial action would not affect business and a contingency plan was in place.