Siptu in talks over Balfour Beatty jobs

Representatives of workers at engineering consortium Balfour Beatty CLG  met management today to discuss proposed redundancies at the company.

The meeting followed the announcement by the firm that it plans to restructure the business with the possibility of up to 76 job losses.

The company, established in 2011 as a joint venture between Balfour Beatty and CLG Developments to carry out network services and works for Bord Gáis Networks, is seeking redundancies for 32 indoor and 44 outdoor staff in Cork, Carlow, Galway and Dublin.

This morning's meeting at the group’s Finglas headquarters  broke up at 11.45pm after about two hours.

Siptu organiser John Regan described it as “a positive engagement” but added that “a big gap” still existed between the sides.

Mr Regan said both sides were committed to "meaningful engagement" adding that Siptu was of the belief that a local agreement could be reached "without the intervention of the State's industrial relations machinery".

He said Siptu had identified a number of measures that could be taken to reduce the number of proposed redundancies. “Proposed redundancy terms and the need to maximise the number of workers directly employed by the company were among the issues discussed at the meeting," Mr Regan said.

A meeting of over 300 union members will be held at Dublin's Liberty Hall next month where the content of today's meeting will be discussed.

Last December, the Balfour Beatty-CLG consortium won a €500 million nine-year construction and maintenance contract with Bord Gáis Networks. Balfour Beatty is a British-based group that employs about 50,000 people worldwide.