Loss of 55 jobs in Youghal another blow to industry in Cork

YOUGHAL in Co Cork was reeling last night from the decision by a local company to close down with the loss of 55 jobs.

Management at Elba Office Products told staff yesterday that the company would cease operations in Youghal by September.

The closure comes as yet another blow to industry in the Cork region which has already lost 590 jobs in recent weeks at Motorola and FCI, and saw a further 540 jobs under threat at three Pfizer plants.

Jobs have also been lost in Limerick, with 80 workers at a packaging firm in Raheen being laid off after Dell computers pulled out of a contract for the supply of packaging material.

According to Fine Gael Cork East TD David Stanton, the lay-offs in Youghal bring to 2,000 the number of jobs lost in the town since 2000.

“Over the past seven years, in the region of 2,000 jobs have been lost to Youghal. This announcement is just another in a long list of job losses including Motorola, Pfizer and FCI and shows that Fianna Fáil and the PDs are failing to keep Ireland competitive in industry.

“There has been a total failure on part of the Fianna Fáil/PD Government, the minister for enterprise and the minister’s agencies to tackle the jobs crisis in Youghal. They have failed to retain industry, failed to attract foreign multinationals and failed to develop indigenous industry.”

Elba’s decision is being blamed on increasing cost pressures that have made production uneconomical.

According to a statement released by company director Nicholas Afriat, operations would continue at the Youghal plant up to the actual date of closure, which would be clarified over the coming months.

“It is proposed that all 55 employees of the company will be given notice of redundancy between March 2007 and September 2007,” said the statement.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, has been informed of the decision and the reasons for it, as have trade union officials representing the employees.

Meanwhile, 30 SIPTU members in Limerick who are about to lose their jobs at a local packaging company look set to take a case to the Labour Court in a bid to gain an enhanced redundancy package.

In all, 80 employees of the Iretex firm in Raheen, Limerick, are being laid off in the coming weeks, while others may follow. Fifty of those are part-time workers.

Iretex, which employs 160 people in Raheen, has been forced to make the cuts after losing a major order from Dell.

An examiner has been appointed to decide how best to deal with the crisis. It’s feared that more jobs may have to go after the examination process — expected to take about six weeks — is complete.

SIPTU have been in negotiations with the company regarding 30 of the confirmed redundancies but no agreement has been reached on severance packages.