Agreement reached on Vita Cortex redundancy

SIPTU LAST night confirmed that it had reached an agreement on redundancy with the owners and management of foam manufacturer Vita Cortex, whose plant in Cork has been occupied by some 23 former employees of the company for the past 139 days.

Siptu divisional organiser Gerry McCormack said all 23 members of the union had voted to accept the latest offer from Vita Cortex owner Jack Ronan and other directors but declined to reveal the terms of the deal, which were agreed on a confidential basis.

Mr McCormack said the offer agreed with Mr Ronan was “a significant improvement” on the €180,000 offered by him in January, which the union had described at the time as “derisory”.

Some 32 workers were made redundant on December 16th last, and when the company said it was unable to pay redundancy of 2.9 weeks pay per year of service, as had been offered under previous agreements, the workers began an occupation of the plant.

Vita Cortex announced it did not have the funds to make redundancy payments because a sister company’s assets were now in Nama, and said the workers could only get the statutory two weeks’ pay per year of service from the State’s Social Insurance Fund.

The workers had calculated that the total package for the 32 workers, who between them had 847 years service, would amount to €372,000 at a redundancy rate of 2.9 weeks’ pay per year of service and had urged Mr Ronan to negotiate with them.

Both sides went to the Labour Relations Commission twice, with the most recent talks breaking down last month after the company withdrew, saying the guidance proposals issued by the mediators did not provide a solid basis for a resolution to the dispute.

It is understood yesterday’s agreement followed a four-hour meeting between Mr McCormack, Siptu organiser Anne Egar and Siptu general secretary Joe O’Flynn with Mr Ronan and Vita Cortex managing director Ian Kirby at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork.

Following the hammering-out of the deal, which followed contact between Mr O’Flynn and Vita Cortex shareholder and former owner Seán McHenry, Siptu officials presented the details of the package to the former employees at a meeting in the Metropole Hotel in Cork.

Workers voted unanimously to accept the package but the occupation of the company’s plant on the Kinsale Road will continue for another fortnight on a scaled-back basis to ensure the company complies with the terms of the deal, Mr McCormack said yesterday.

A spokesman for Mr Ronan said “we are satisfied with today’s outcome”.