Region braces for E8m blow as 161 jobs axed

Eddie Cassidy

The well-paid workforce at the Brinny plant, near Innishannon, is to be reduced from around 700 to 545 over the next three months after a second round of job cuts at the plant in just over 12 months.

The company was yesterday confident most of the job losses would be achieved through a voluntary redundancy programme.

A redundancy package of six weeks per year of employment plus statutory entitlements is expected to be offered by the company.

Workers, however, were last night angry at the scale of the job cuts.

“The announcement was more severe than most workers anticipated and we now fear for the long term future of the plant,” said one employee.

Workers emerging from the lunchtime meeting where the job losses were announced declined to talk to waiting media.

“We are not permitted to talk to the press,” said one worker, who added: “People who thought their jobs are safe are now genuinely concerned.”

A female employee said: “I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a walk-out. It looks like all management jobs are safe with workers in production and the labs taking the brunt of the cuts.”

Schering-Plough laid off 170 at the plant in January 2004.

Blaming the redundancies on a drop in demand for the anti-cancer and anti-viral products manufactured at the Cork plant, the company said the losses would be spread over most departments. Schering-Plough operations in Bray and Rathdrum in Co Wicklow were not affected by the redundancy programme.

The Mayor of Bandon, Cllr Margaret Murphy-O’Mahony said yesterday: “It’s a black day for the region. Schering-Plough over the last two decades has been good to the town in terms of employment and sponsorship but this is a huge blow that will have a ripple effect throughout the Bandon district.”

An ex-employee at the plant, Senator Michael McCarthy said the redundancies, together with job losses at Dairygold and the Sara Lee factory in Killarney, will undermine the economic viability of the Munster region.

“This has been one of the bleakest starts to any year in recent memory on the jobs front, with hundreds of redundancies in the manufacturing and technology sectors,” he said.

Dr Colman Casey, general manager Schering-Plough (Brinny), said the decision was made with great regret.

The plant, one of Schering-Plough’s biotechnology sites, produces drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients used in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis.

Bandon-based TD Jim O’Keeffe said yesterday: “The announcement was an enormous blow to a region where alternative employment opportunities extend from limited to nil.

“The people of West Cork have no great confidence in the Government creating new jobs here, especially in Bandon where the town was flatly turned down for the decentralisation programme.”