Element 6

LoLth

anyone got any better information on this story:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0812/breaking72.htm

Talks fail at Element Six
GORDON DEEGANTalks between troubled diamond manufacturer Element 6 and the Siptu and TEEU unions broke up this evening without agreement on the company’s survival plan for the plant.

Workers will be balloted tomorrow for industrial action.

The talks lasted for four hours today and General Manager of Element 6, Ken Sullivan in a short statement after the talks, said no agreement had been reached.

“Again, I urge all those involved to see the urgency of the situation facing us all and to work together to save jobs here in Shannon.”

No further talks are planned.

In the rescue plan, 163 of the original 370 jobs earmarked for redundancy are to be saved with 207 workers facing compulsory redundancy.

Yesterday, workers received protective notice with the company advising individual workers that they may be affected by the company’s decision to cut jobs at the plant.

However, employees are expected to return the notices unopened to the company as the impasse between the two sides continues.

The sticking point between management and unions remains the redundancy deal on offer, which is a fraction of what was on offer six months ago.

Siptu shop steward, Murdoch Gleeson said: “There was no budging today from management on the terms of the redundancy package and we have no mandate to negotiate on a rescue plan without an improved redundancy deal first."

Mr Gleeson said that management did not want the unions to proceed with the ballot for industrial action, but the unions had agreed to go ahead with the ballot.

He said there was "no point" referring the issue to the Labour Court if management "was not prepared to move on the redundancy deal."

I'm not sure what to think about this. On the one hand, its terrible that 207 people are losing their jobs, on the other, its great that 163 jobs can be saved....

The disagreement seems to be over the fact that the redundancy package is not as much as what was offered six months ago. Was the package offered six months ago agreed to and the company broke the agreement? Did the workers refuse the package in the hopes of getting a better deal? How does the package stack against the statuary redundancy requirements?

Is this a case where those losing out should take their lumps and take some comfort in the fact that their colleagues jobs might be safe or are they right to put everyone's jobs at risk in the hopes of getting a better redundancy package ?

From personal experience, I and several colleagues have accepted redundancy in the past on the premise that it was necessary to weather a bad period and save other jobs (with a proviso that whenever the company got back on its feet we would have first option on our old positions). In the end the company got dissolved and everyone was let go but at least the effort was made....

Digi_Tilmitt

My Dad works there so I can fill in some of the details.

The redundancies earlier in the year were voluntary packages, there was no formal agreement then about the current redundancies which were only decided by the company all of sudden recently. I believe the current package is statutory + 2.5 weeks per year of service but capped at a years pay. AFAIK the redundancies earlier in the year were 6 weeks pay per year of service uncapped. I believe the big issue the union is having is the huge deterioration of the redundancy package, particularly the 1 year cap which hits workers with many years service very hard.

As for the jobs being "saved", every worker will have to reapply for their job of which a few may be offered places. However they've been told they'll be expected to be willing to work all the different jobs in the factory with mandatory shift work etc. and much worse terms of employment. In other words the company wants to get out of the wage agreements it has made with its current employees. While I certainly sympathise with the company in the regards to the cost of doing business in Ireland, the common view among the employees at Element 6 seems to be that the recession is being used as an excuse to batter out really unfavourable terms of employment with its workers, as it knows they have little chance of finding work elsewhere with Ireland the way it is. Also I've heard that the factory itself is quite busy and not in any sense lying idle or unproductive even in the current climate, which seems to have improved for Element 6 over the past few months.

Of course I am somewhat biased, as my family is suffering over this, but I've tried to give a reasonable explanation of what's going on there.

jfk0410

@ digi tilmitt

Just to put you straight the last set of redundancies, while billed initially as voluntary, were in fact in many cases, compulsory. And while the offer was 6 weeks for every year of service, it was capped at 2.5 years salary.

While those who left under those terms did far better than whats on offer now I wish to dispel any notion that it was voluntary. How do I know this, - I was one of the people given my walking papers in Jan 2009 after 25 years unblemished service. It wasn't voluntary I wasn't given a choice in the matter. But looking back maybe I was luckly as from what I can see now I'd get nothing if I was still there.

The current management hold no loyalty to their workforce who have stood with them through thick and thin and that same workforce whose efforts in the main have been above and beyond the the call of duty over the years now must be jettisoned and scrapped as cheaply as possible by management whose only loyalty is to themselves and the shareholders. Long gone are the days when one to work in De Beers Industrial Diamonds was an honour and a priviledge, where the employees were treated with respect as people not like today in Element Six where the last remnants of a once proud workforce are seen as liabilities that must be written off as cheaply and as quickly as possibly.

Digi_Tilmitt

jfk0410 wrote: »

@ digi tilmitt

Just to put you straight the last set of redundancies, while billed initially as voluntary, were in fact in many cases, compulsory. And while the offer was 6 weeks for every year of service, it was capped at 2.5 years salary.

While those who left under those terms did far better than whats on offer now I wish to dispel any notion that it was voluntary. How do I know this, - I was one of the people given my walking papers in Jan 2009 after 25 years unblemished service. It wasn't voluntary I wasn't given a choice in the matter. But looking back maybe I was luckly as from what I can see now I'd get nothing if I was still there.

The current management hold no loyalty to their workforce who have stood with them through thick and thin and that same workforce whose efforts in the main have been above and beyond the the call of duty over the years now must be jettisoned and scrapped as cheaply as possible by management whose only loyalty is to themselves and the shareholders. Long gone are the days when one to work in De Beers Industrial Diamonds was an honour and a priviledge, where the employees were treated with respect as people not like today in Element Six where the last remnants of a once proud workforce are seen as liabilities that must be written off as cheaply and as quickly as possibly.

Thanks for clearing that up, I wasn't 100% sure on what the situation was.