2,000 workers share €4m bonus

TWO thousand workers are to share an estimated 4 million in finishing bonuses after putting in seven million work hours at the €1 billion Wyeth BioPharma Campus in Dublin.

Work on the 1.2 million square foot complex is expected to be completed at the end of next year and the three plants in the complex are expected to be in full production by 2005 as new processes are phased in.

Initially the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) sought a 5,000 finishing bonus, but this was rejected by the Labour Court and the new deal was brokered with the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) and accepted in a ballot of workers. The Labour Court said that the incidence of finishing bonuses was so rare in the construction industry that it was not satisfied that the payment was warranted.

The construction unions argued that numerous precedents existed for the payment of finishing bonuses on large industrial sites, where the work lasted two to three years. The unions said the work was heavy, demanding and very complex, with workers having to learn new skills, often with very little formal training.

The deal for workers is The Wyeth facility on a 90-acre site on the Grange Castle International Business Park in Clondalkin, Dublin, will employ 1,300 people at full production bringing the total Wyeth workforce in Ireland to 3,000 and will comprise 3 separate facilities a drug development facility, a drug substance facility, and a drug product facility.