Element Six Labour Court date looms

THE dispute over redundancy terms at Element Six could come to an end in the next week.
Unions and management are due to meet under the auspices of the Labour Court this Thursday and the court is likely to issue its recommendations in the coming days.

Both unions and management will put their points of view forward on Thursday as attempts are made to reach a solution, which would allow progress on the Shannon plant’s sustainability plan to be made.
The company has offered workers around two and a half weeks of pay per year of service, along with statutory allowances. However, a maximum of one year’s pay could be given to any single worker. As recently as the end of last year, workers were offered six weeks of pay, along with statutory allowances.
The court’s recommendations will not be binding and following their recommendation, workers would have to ballot on what is on offer.
Following a letter to employees last week from CEO Cyrus Jilla, in which he stated that the plant will close unless there is progress before the end of the month, workers held a protest march at the plant last Thursday.
Mr Jilla had claimed that “a vocal minority” of workers were causing the delay, but at the protest one worker said that wasn’t true.
“Just look around you, see what’s here. There’s about 250 working today and around 200 of them are here,” he commented.
One SIPTU member said that Mr Jilla was spreading misinformation. “It’s a propaganda machine they’re starting. We agreed to go to the Labour Court on one matter; redundancy. They agreed that with the conciliator. Yet we were called in afterwards and told that we have to get other talks going on the sustainability plan, but we’ve no mandate for that. Then we got a threatening letter from Cyrus Jilla saying that they’d put us back on short time and pull the plan. Why didn’t he say that at the conciliation meeting?”
The day after the protest, September 11, locally-based management also wrote to staff urging them to make the Shannon Sustainability Plan work.
“By sitting on our hands at this stage we have everything to lose. There is a real prospect that statutory redundancy for a much bigger number than the 207 could be the outcome if we do nothing now. We give you our commitment that we will do everything possible to make the SSP real over the next few weeks.
“Please engage to make the SSP work. We believe that engaging now on the SSP does not weaken the case for a good fair package. In fact, it makes it more likely,” management claimed.
In advance of the Labour Court sitting, the plant’s general manager, Ken Sullivan reiterated the company’s view that a quick solution is needed, but he said he is optimistic.
“Our objective, since Element Six Chief Executive Cyrus Jilla approved the Shannon Sustainability Plan, was to secure a long-term future for 243 jobs here at Shannon. The plan will save 163 jobs that will otherwise be made redundant should we not reach a resolution here and more than double the redundancy payments originally offered.
“We are encouraged by the strong support from employees for the plan and the 163 jobs it provides for. This is evidenced by the very substantial number of ‘expressions of interest’ received from employees in the jobs at all levels across the operation that we have detailed as part of the sustainability plan.
“However, as outlined by Mr Jilla last week, due to the deteriorating financial conditions at Element Six globally, we have until the end of the month to reach agreement or else we will have no alternative but to revert to the original wind-down plan, which is absolutely in no one’s interest,” he said.