Fears mount for future of 550 plant jobs

FEARS are growing for the future of 550 jobs at a manufacturing plant after the entire workforce was yesterday put on protective notice.

Staff at Braun Ireland Ltd in Carlow Town, which once employed 1,500 staff, were put on protective notice because of an overtime ban introduced at the plant almost two weeks ago.

The company shed 200 jobs last year and sought 10 voluntary redundancies from management and administrative staff last month.

It is now letting seven of the company’s 50 technicians go, a move which staff oppose. Workers claim the company will be dependent on others doing overtime in their absence.

In a statement yesterday, Braun blamed SIPTU for the move. “We are putting our industrial and technical workforce on protective notice from today, resulting from an unofficial ban on overtime endorsed by SIPTU.”

“Management have stated their readiness to resume discussions with SIPTU representatives upon the ban being lifted and, in the event that the discussions are inconclusive, the matter to be referred to the Labour Court. This offer has been rejected by SIPTU representatives,” said a spokesperson.

SIPTU’S Mike Browne, said talks are at an extremely sensitive stage.

“We want to achieve a return to normal working and this will be the focus of a series of discussions over the coming days. Our focus now is towards finding a mutually acceptable ground from which we can begin talks.”

Braun Ireland Ltd, on Carlow’s Dublin Road, manufactures hair care products and electrical goods for the Irish and international markets.

Meanwhile, there was better news on the jobs front for Dublin. Sigma Wireless Technologies is to create 70 new jobs at its plant in Finglas, North Dublin, as a result of an agreement with mobile telephone company O2.

Sigma said that the deal follows a 6m research and development initiative by the company to produce antenna technology for mobile telephones.

The company employs 400 people in Ireland.

‘It has backfired against the company. It has united us.’

By Neans McSweeney

FATHER of two David Byrne is one of the lucky ones. A technician at the Braun electrical plant outside Carlow, he is not included in the group of 50 whose jobs could be axed.

He has worked at the plant on the Dublin Road for the past seven years.

He’s seen many disputes and is not too worried about his future at the plant, even though he is one of the many who has been put on protective notice.

“I’m one of the technicians involved in the overtime ban. All other staff have also been put on protective notice and it’s nothing at all to do with them.

“People are just fed up with the situation at this stage. The company thought that by putting us all on protective notice, it might spur us to call off the overtime ban. It hasn’t and it won’t. It has backfired against the company. What it has done is unite us.”

Chamber of Commerce CEO, Jacqui McNabb, said Braun is worth €250,000 to Carlow town each week. “This is the first time the entire workforce has been put on protective notice and we are very worried.

While it has been downsizing over the years, we have always been optimistic it would remain here.”