Workers ‘gutted’ by redundancy offer of one week’s pay per year of service

WORKERS at Element Six said they were particularly “gutted” by the redundancy package being offered by the company.

One long-time employee said: “This is absolutely unreal. There is real shock here. We expected a significant announcement but no one expected this. They told us that there is no money in the kitty and as a result, all we will get now is two weeks’ statutory and a week from the company. “That is an insult.

Another shocked and angry worker said: “They had no chairs in the canteen for the meeting and I tell you, it is just as well. It would have kicked off and there would have been mayhem.

“What do we do now? What chance do I have of getting a job? We have been rightly screwed here.”

Neville O’Halloran said: “I will have to tell my wife the job is gone,” he said as he left the plant. He is married just over three years.

Mr O’Halloran said he did not know what the future held for him: “There are no jobs there. I’m just a machine operator at the bottom of the scale.

“It is hard, it is hard at the moment, and when you hear them cutting welfare, it is going to get harder. It’s hard to get to grips with it.”

Workers, he said, did not expect the scale of the job losses announced.

Mr O’Halloran said: “There was a lot anger at the meeting. It came out of the blue. It is a lot of families ruined. We were in last night and we didn’t think it would be this bad. There seems to be the work there.”

High costs, he said, was something that had to be looked at.

“They are doing Ireland out of jobs,” he said.

Coleman Glynn from Ennis is one of those who will be out of work before the end of the year as a result of the decision.

Mr Glynn, a machine operator, said: “I feel very angry at the package they are offering (one week per year of service with two weeks’ statutory). What do you think this will do to me? De Beers are the people who made all the money here and after making massive profits they are now walking away. Everyone here is devastated and gutted. All these multinationals who made money here are now pulling out and leaving people in the lurch. We are just going to become another third world country.”

One worker who took redundancy 20 years ago said: “It was the best company in the region to work at. There were unbelievable conditions. They were fantastic to work for, with big Christmas bonus payments.”

SIPTU’s Shannon organiser, Mary O’Donnell, condemned the offer by Element Six of one week’s pay per year of service on top of statutory entitlements. She said on previous occasions the company had given six weeks pay, inclusive of statutory entitlements of two weeks.

Ms O’Donnell said: “Our members are extremely angry and very disappointed at the company’s approach to redundancy payments.”

She said union representatives will be meeting with the company at 1.30pm today.