The workers who spent more than five months occupying a factory in pursuit of redundancy payments have been invited to dine with the President.

Vita Cortex workers are expecting redundancy funds to begin flowing into their bank accounts from today as their marathon 151-day sit-in nears its end.

After 139 days of round-the-clock sit-ins, the former employees of Vita Cortex have finally secured a severance deal with their former employer which will allow them to go home within a fortnight.

Workers at the Vita Cortex plant in Cork are planning a “major escalation” of their protest following the company’s refusal to take on board the guidance offered by mediation officials who attempted to find a solution to the four-month-long dispute.

The board and management of Vita Cortex have rejected mediation proposals aimed at resolving the four-month dispute at the company over redundancy payments.

Union officials representing the Vita Cortex workers have insisted manager Jack Ronan has a clear moral obligation to compensate his staff, regardless of whether he has a legal obligation to pay extra redundancy.

Talks have taken place at the Labour Relations Commission in Dublin as part of efforts to end the Vita Cortex dispute.

There are hopes of a breakthrough in the long-running Vita Cortex dispute after Siptu agreed last night to attend talks at the Labour Relations Commission next week.

The employers’ union Ibec has accused Siptu of “a pattern of misrepresentation” of the facts of the bitter Vita Cortex dispute.

Vita Cortex workers are not entitled to get any kind of “top-up” from the company which employed them on statutory redundancy paid by the Government, the Department of Social Protection has said.

Up to 5,000 people attended a march organised in support of Vita Cortex workers over the weekend in one of the biggest public demonstrations Cork city has seen in recent years.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is calling on the public to take part in a march in Cork city later in support of the Vita Cortex workers.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny strongly indicated today that the protesting Vita Cortex workers in Cork should get their full redundancy of 2.9 weeks’ wages per year of service.

“If I could pick up the phone and tell him to find the redundancy money, I would.”

The former Vita Cortex workers have been told they will receive their statutory redundancy entitlements from the Department of Social Protection early next week — but their protest at the manufacturing plant in Cork will go on.

Vita Cortex workers have taken their protest to the home of one of the company’s owners in Douglas, Cork.

Siptu has accused the owner of Vita Cortex of using his former workers as “pawns” in his talks with Nama after it emerged he failed to deliver on a deal that could have ended the six-week sit-in last Friday.

TWO senior executives of the Vita Cortex operation in Cork received severance pay in excess of the amount needed to secure agreed redundancy payments for the 32 workers engaged in a sit-in at the plant.

Vita Cortex workers in Cork have said they are willing to sit down with company owners if they come to the table with serious intent.

Families of Vita Cortex workers staging a sit-in over redundancy entitlements will gather at the factory in Cork at lunchtime today in a solidarity protest.

The Vita Cortex plant in Cork has made a payment offer to protesting staff of €1,500.

Workers staging a sit-in at a foam packaging manufacturing company in Cork say they have no desire to spend Christmas there, but they won't leave until the terms of their redundancies have been settled satisfactorily.

Workers are continuing a sit-in at the Vita Cortex plant in Cork this afternoon.

A ONE-DAY strike by 2,500 SIPTU workers affected Dairygold businesses throughout the country yesterday.

SIPTU confirmed yesterday that a 24-hour strike by its members in all Dairygold Co-op depots is going ahead on Tuesday.