Element Six workers on protective notice
ELEMENT Six general manager Ken Sullivan has asked workers to step back from the brink and "work together to save jobs in Shannon".
SIPTU and TEEU members are this Thursday commencing a ballot for industrial action and it is understood that letters issued from management on Wednesday putting workers on protective notice will be returned unopened.
Mr Sullivan made his appeal on Wednesday after management failed to reach agreement with unions on a rescue plan and redundancy at the troubled industrial diamond manufacturer.
The plan was agreed with Element Six chief executive Cyrus Jilla last week after a delegation of local management led by Mr Sullivan travelled to London for talks.
It would see 163 of 370 jobs in manufacturing and distribution saved with financial support from the Government. It is understood that unions are initially focusing on improving the redundancy offer to over 200 people who would become jobless under the plan, a package vastly inferior to one agreed in Shannon last December.
"Discussions continued today (Wednesday) with the unions who represent employees in Element Six. No agreement was reached. Again, I urge all those involved to see the urgency of the situation facing us all and to work together to save jobs here in Shannon," Mr Sullivan said.
After staff were persuaded from staging a sit-in in recent days, Mr Sullivan also warned that any disruption to production would only harden the resolve of the Element Six executive to force through the original plan with the loss of 370 jobs.
"This is not intended as a threat but is simply a statement of fact as the executive is not prepared to allow the business to be damaged by failure to meet the requirements of our customers upon which the very survival of Element Six is dependent," he stated.
SIPTU has said it "cannot give any assurance on the co-operation of the workforce" and accused the company of "reneging on previous agreements" and treating its workforce with "utter contempt".
Shannon industrial branch organiser Mary O'Donnell said workers had "no trust that the jobs concerned are for the long term or anything more than a stop-gap to take advantage of the Government subsidy scheme funded by the taxpayer".
There has been a broad welcome from political leaders over the plan to save 160 of the 370 jobs at risk although they are urging to company to improve the redundancy package currently on the table.
At present, it stands at four and a half weeks per year of service, capped at one years salary in comparison to a package agreed last December in which workers got eight weeks per year of service capped at two and a half years' salary.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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