Ex-Element 6 workers get unexpected windfall

WORKERS at a Shannon company which let go more than 200 staff late last year, and only narrowly avoided closing its production facility completely, have been rewarded with an unexpected cash windfall.

Unions and management at Element Six (E6) were engaged in a bitter battle last year over the company’s restructuring plan.

The Clare-based industrial diamond manufacturer had threatened to keep just 80 of the 450 jobs if agreement could not be reached. The three unions at the plant had claimed the company could have afforded far more favourable redundancy payments. However agreement was reached and, in the end, 163 of the 370 manufacturing jobs were saved.