Element Six one year on

JULY 22 of last year was an emotional day in Shannon as workers at Element Six were told that 370 of them were to lose their jobs.
As it turned out, only around 160 jobs were ultimately lost but it has been a traumatic 12 months for many people who were hit by the fallout.
Ruairí Price lost his job and has been out of work for a little over six months now.
“To tell you the truth I’m glad to be out of it. I don’t have any regrets and I don’t miss the place,” he says.
After being let go, he went back to work at Element Six for around three weeks on a temporary basis but he claims he is still waiting for part of his redundancy payment.
He is still a bit uncertain about what the future will hold for him. While he has considered emigration, he is also looking at going to college.
“I had a FÁS interview lately and I’ve looked online. I thought about going abroad but I’m looking at going to college and doing green keeping in Cork for four years. I have the money from the redundancy to cover it.”
At the time, the company’s CEO Cyrus Jilla claimed that the Shannon plant wasn’t as competitive as it needed to be.
“While we have made great strides over the years to make the site competitive, it is insufficient to ensure long-term viability. The global economic downturn has simply added to the need for decisive and urgent action. Unfortunately, our situation is similar to many manufacturing operations in Ireland in recent years that ceased to be cost competitive,” he said last year.
One worker, who hasn’t left, said that the company is now busier than ever, with levels of production far in excess of what had been forecast.
“It’s extremely busy, it has picked up an awful lot. Why, people don’t seem to know. Production is double and treble what had been predicted.”
He said that around 100 people, most of them former employees, have come back on temporary contracts. At the same time, he claimed that pay has actually gone up for permanent workers.
After the original announcement of job losses, redundancy terms proved the big stumbling block in negotiations between the company and unions.
On the day that the redundancies were announced, one employee said that she was looking at getting a payout that was far less than had been on offer previously.
“I’m here 10 years and I was offered nearly €60,000 to leave (in 2008). Now I’m looking at €10,000 going out the door.”
Later in the year, the company agreed to accept a Labour Court recommendation for a superior redundancy package than what was originally offered. Workers were to receive around four weeks pay per year of service, plus two weeks statutory payments. There were extra allowances for people there over 20 years and those who didn’t qualify for redundancy were to receive at least €7,500.
The number signing on in Clare this time last year was 10,158, but this has since increased to 10,379.
Clare TD Timmy Dooley said that things have been very difficult for workers.
“I was in Shannon and I met workers who were very concerned about their future. We involved the Tánaiste, who gave assistance in trying to maintain jobs. One very positive thing was that workers put a lot of effort into restructuring and because of that it was possible to save a lot of the jobs,” he said.