REDUNDANT Semperit workers will donate almost £10,000 to Dublin's three children's hospitals.
The money will come out of their welfare contingency fund which was wound up when the factory closed in September.
The fund had £9,500 and the Trustee Savings Bank has donated £600 so the workforce can give £3,400 each to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin the National Children's Hospital in Harcourt Street and the Children's Hospital Temple Street.
The chairman of the shop stewards committee, Mr John Flannery of SIPTU, says the donation indicates the spirit of the workforce.
Meanwhile, many former employees find significant amounts of redundancy compensation have been clawed back in tax and
PRSI. The threshold for tax liability is £12,000. About 400 of the 600 former employees would have received more than £12,000 because of long service.
Workers with over 20 years service would have had almost a quarter of their £50,000 redundancy payments go in tax and PRSI.
Local Workers Party councillor Mr Tomas Mac Giolla yesterday criticised the practice of taxing redundancy payments as normal annual income. He said most Semperit employees would probably never work again. Even if the IDA found new investors for the 16 acre site in Ballyfermot, Dublin, it was unlikely that former Semperit workers, particularly older workers, would be offered jobs, he added.
Mr Flannery hopes employees may still buy the factory from the German owners, Continental AG, and maintain it as a tyre manufacturing plant. The money invested in shares would then be eligible for tax relief and many of their colleagues would be re employed.