WORKERS AT troubled Shannon company Element Six will hold a protest march at lunchtime today to highlight further their frustration at the “inadequate” redundancy package being offered to staff who will be laid off as part of a survival plan that has still to be agreed.
Both union and non-union employees of the industrial diamond manufacturer, which is already facing a threat of strike action, will march from the plant through the Shannon Free Zone at lunchtime and will be joined by their families as well as union colleagues from other companies in the area.
Last month, management announced that 370 of the plant’s 450 staff would be laid off and production ended at the Clare facility. A week later, following representations to company bosses, the Shannon management team was given the opportunity to formulate a survival plan that was later accepted by group chief executive Cyrus Jilla.
The plan proposes to save 243 posts, where just 80 were going to be kept, and selling off a portion of the site on which the company operates. A pay freeze for all staff until the end of 2011 and a pay cut above a certain threshold for all management grades are also contained in the plan.
However, one of the most contentious elements of the proposal is the redundancy package being offered to the 207 workers who will lose their jobs. The company is offering just two-and-a-half weeks’ wages for every year of service, on top of the two-week statutory payment; however, this has been capped at one year. One hundred and fifty workers who accepted a redundancy deal last January received eight weeks for every year with the company.
Members of Siptu and the TEEU have already balloted for strike action following their rejection of the redundancy package. Both unions say their members want a package that is at least on par with previous packages, and while they have stated that they are willing to enter third-party talks, they will only do so after the “redundancy issue has been dealt with before anything else”.
In a strongly-worded letter to each employee this week, Mr Jilla warned: “If there is industrial action, or if there is no genuine engagement to reach resolution fairly quickly, the company will have to return to its original plan to wind down operations with the loss of 370 jobs.”
Mr Jilla also warned staff, saying: “Make no mistake, not co-operating, not consulting, or fighting the plan and package in a way which disrupts the business will not help you or anyone. I fear, instead, it will make the end result for Shannon employees far worse.”
He added, if the company was forced to wind down operations, they would have review whether they could afford to fund pension liabilities, a threat that has been described by Siptu as a “new low”.