Town devastated as 200 workers to be laid off at major employer
Medical devices manufacturer Covidien announced it was making 39 staff compulsorily redundant and was looking for a further 160 workers to leave the plant voluntarily.
The news was broken to staff and their unions yesterday afternoon.
The company wants to start reducing its 650-strong workforce from September.
Covidien, a subsidiary of Tyco International, blamed declining sales and increases in competition from lower- cost manufacturers.
However, it also told workers it believes the plant can sustain the jobs of the remaining 450 employees.
Those being made redundant will be paid under the formula agreed with staff union SIPTU – six weeks per year of service, plus statutory entitlements.
The company and union will now begin a 30-day consultation to discuss the process for compulsory and voluntary redundancies in detail.
“This is devastating news for our members in Covidien and for the wider community in Tullamore and Co Offaly,” said SIPTU branch organiser Frank Jones after meeting staff.
“This has been a very successful and profitable company which has been at the heart of economic activity in the midlands since 1982. Husbands and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters have worked in this plant. People are shocked at the news.”
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he had spoken to the company’s US-based chief executive Rich Meelia, who reassured him Covidien remains committed to Ireland and to Tullamore.
“He also clearly made the point that with new automation equipment recently installed, a further €3m to be invested in the Tullamore plant this year and today’s announcement about the reduction in job numbers, he was very confident about the future sustainability of the plant and its 450 employees,” he said.
Local Fine Gael TD Olwyn Enright said most of Tullamore’s large employers have now been wiped out in just a few years: “It’s extraordinary that the town’s employment base could be hollowed out in this manner.”
Ms Enright said she had spoken to the company and she was aware that competitiveness of the particular product manufactured in Tullamore was a major factor in these job losses.
“I have questioned the company about how it intends to address this factor in order to secure the remaining 450 staff,” she said. “The company responded that it has invested a total of €13 million over the last five years to become more competitive. It has also recruited different product lines to mitigate the number of job losses.”
In Ireland for 30 years, Covidien has four factories here, in Tullamore, Athlone, Galway and Dublin.
