Workers at Cardinal Health in Tullamore may be offered a total of eight weeks’ pay per year of service, as unions open negotiations with the company ahead of the planned closure of the plant.
About 315 staff are set to be made redundant on a phased basis over the next 18 months or so. Management informed staff on Thursday that the medical devices firm plans to shutter the plant. Some production is thought to be moving to Mexico and Costa Rica.
Siptu representatives are expected to open talks with the company on Tuesday to discuss redundancy terms. No terms have been agreed as yet, but management are understood to have indicated to staff that the company is likely to offer redundancy in line with a previous package. That consisted of six weeks’ pay for every year of service, as well as the statutory two weeks’ redundancy per year. There were caps on the total payout depending on how long staff had been employed.
Calls to a Siptu representative were not returned, as were messages to Cardinal Health.
Next week’s talks will come after The Irish Times reported that Cardinal Health took a $100 million (€90.2 million) dividend from its main Irish unit this year. News of that payout may sharpen worker demands for a big redundancy package.
Separately, talks between unions and management on redundancy terms at the BD medical technology plant in Drogheda, Co Louth, continue. That plant is set to close with the loss of 200 jobs and while a consultation process is ongoing, the final terms are yet to be agreed. That is likely to be resolved in the coming weeks, according to sources.
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