NEARLY 400 jobs are under threat in Tallaght, Co Dublin at the plants of Packard Electric and Jacobs, the biscuit manufacturers.
Packard has yet to announce how many of the 360 workers laid off as an emergency measure to save the plant last June will now be offered redundancy, but the figure is expected to be at least 200.
W.R. Jacob Ltd wants to shed 200 jobs over a three year period. It informed staff of its proposals at a general meeting on Wednesday and met the unions yesterday. The human resources director, Mr Neil Ormond, said the objective was to ensure that any redundancies would be voluntary.
At Packard, the redundancies are likely to be compulsory. The company is obliged, under the June 1995 agreement which laid off nearly half the workforce of 800, to notify unions by March, 15th, 1996, of its commercial prospects. If it seemed likely that the majority of those laid off last year would not be re employed in the near future, then they would have to be offered redundancy terms by April 15th.
At a meeting with the unions yesterday, the company said prospects remained poor. It is clear from the terms of the 1995 agreement that the number of redundancies to be announced in April must be at least half of the 360, laid off.
In a statement to the workforce, the company said: "Business prospects for 1996 remain poor and, accordingly, a redundancy package will have to take place. The number of employees required to run the plant in future has not yet been fully established, but will be communicated to all employees prior to the April 15th deadline".
Mr Mick O'Reilly, of the ATGWU, said after the meeting with management that while no details of redundancies were, given, company representatives, promised that all laid off employees would be told if they were coming back or being made redundant by April 15th. The company had also said that it remained committed to its' Tallaght plant.
Earlier, company representatives met the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, and the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr Pat Rabbitte.
