Assembly workers to discuss Seagate workers' plight

The plight of around 900 Seagate workers losing their jobs will be debated in the Northern Assembly today.

Sinn Féin’s Mitchel McLaughlin is calling for a strategy from the UK Department for Employment and Learning to help workers at the plant in Limavady, Co Derry, back to work.

Seagate, which has received £12m (€16.8m) from Invest Northern Ireland and its predecessor IDB since 2001, will close in the second half of next year.

It is understood staff at the computer components part factory have each been offered six weeks pay for every year they have worked at the plant, but only if they stay until July. This means the average redundancy package will work out at about £20,000 (€28,000).

The American company has had a base in Limavady for the last decade.

However, it has a plant in Malaysia which is due to start operations in the new year.

Meanwhile, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) is supporting a demonstration at Stormont calling for the abolition of variable tuition fees.

USI president Hamid Khodabakhshi said: “Young people on fixed incomes are suffering gross hardship. Let Northern Ireland be the kind of society that values all citizens – and their ability to benefit from higher education - equally. That means an end to fees.”