Dell staff to consider bringing case to LRC

DELL workers who are set to lose their jobs over the coming months have called a meeting tomorrow night to consider taking their fight for better redundancy to the Labour Relations Commission.

The company has announced that 2,000 of its 3,000 workforce in Limerick is to be let go with the transfer of manufacturing to a new plant in Lodz in Poland where the hourly rate is about e3 an hour.

Initially, Dell offered workers six weeks pay for each year of service, capped at 52 weeks, and later upped the cap to 104 weeks under protest from angry workers and public representatives.

Denis Ryan, who heads a committee of Dell workers, said the meeting is being held to allow workers to give their opinion on whether they should take their case for a better deal to the Labour Relations Commission, following the breakdown in talks.

He has called on public representatives to attend the meeting in the South Court Hotel, which is due to commence at 8pm.

Mr Ryan said: “We have had a number of meetings but to us, as a committee, Dell management has as at the very best been doing no more than going through the motions. They did come up with a second offer, but that was of benefit only to some workers and was clearly an effort to divide and conquer.”

He accused some members of Dell management of “overstepping the mark” in their dealings with staff.

Mr Ryan said: “For example, one of our committee members was called in when he was sending out flyers for the meeting. But, when he asked to have a witness present, he was not allowed. He went away fairly distressed. There is an awful lot of disappointment (over redundancy pay) and I think the meeting we have called will reflect that. It is as if the efforts of the staff, who made billions of dollars in profits for the company over the years at the plant, count for nothing.

“What Dell are offering us as redundancy is only a little more than half the going rate for many other multinationals who have let staff go in this region.”

A spokesperson for Dell said the company cannot comment on non-specific allegations that have not been brought to its attention.

“Dell has mechanisms in place to deal with employee complaints,” the spokesperson said.