Union told to find €500k cutbacks at Cadbury plant in Rathmore

The union representing workers at Cadbury in Ireland has been told by the Labour Court to come up with proposals to identify €500,000 in annual cutbacks at the company’s Co Kerry plant.

The Labour Court’s recommendation to Siptu to deliver the cutbacks at the Cadbury plant in Rathmore also states that if such proposals are not forthcoming, it should co-operate with Cadbury owner Mondelez to agree to voluntary redundancies.

Mondelez employs 900 in Ireland and exports €250m worth of chocolate each year.

Plans by Mondelez to restructure and rationalise operations at its Rathmore site have been opposed by Siptu, however.

The facility is the firm’s chocolate crumb plant and has been a mainstay of the local economy on the Cork-Kerry border for 68 years.

The dispute could not be resolved at local level and was the subject of a conciliation conference under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission.

It was then referred to the Labour Court.

Siptu claimed that the company’s proposal was unworkable and did not accept that jobs should be lost and workers be made redundant.

Siptu added that it is prepared to enter into dialogue in good faith in order to find a viable solution to the dispute, and asks the court to so recommend.

However, in reply, Mondelez stated it has engaged in extensive local discussions with the union on all matters and that the final proposals are the minimum required to address the competitiveness challenges that the site faces.

The firm said that they have been independently verified as being more than adequate for the volume that the site will be required to make and that no purpose will be served by further discussions between the parties.

In its recommendation, the Labour Court suggested that the parties engage with a view to providing the union with an opportunity to identify ongoing savings of circa €500,000 per annum.

It stated: “Should the parties fail to reach agreement on such savings within a period of three weeks from the date of this recommendation, the court further recommends that the union co-operate with the company’s proposals and agree the voluntary reductions in staff numbers and engage with management on the optimum arrangements for operating the facility with the reduced staffing levels.”

The recommendation concludes that “should the parties fail to agree on the details of those proposals they should within six weeks refer all outstanding issues back to the court for a definitive recommendation”.