UP TO 900 jobs at the troubled aircraft maintenance company SR Technics could be saved if a new management buyout bid, tabled over the weekend, is successful, Siptu said yesterday. But it said the plan would require about €25 million in State support.
The company announced last month it is to close its operation at Dublin airport with the loss of 1,100 jobs.
A spokesman for SR Technics said last night it had received a preliminary draft proposal from existing management and it was awaiting a final proposal which would be fully evaluated with all other expressions of interest.
The company is due to begin the closure of the plant later this week with about 600 staff being let go at that stage.
Siptu branch organiser Pat Ward said yesterday that the company had received “a serious expression of interest” in the past 24 hours to acquire its facility.
He said that the company had admitted the new approach during a hearing at the Labour Court.
Mr Ward called on the IDA to help fund the transfer of undertakings proposal.
“I understand the MBO would need about €25 million in IDA aid, which is half the expected cost to the exchequer of letting the facility close. That is not to mention the loss to the economy of the skills base of the workforce and potential income it could generate, as it has for the past half century,” he said.
Mr Ward said that at the Labour Court hearing into the scale of the proposed redundancy payments, SR Technics had said that it was unwilling, due to financial reasons, to defer the 600 redundancies which are scheduled to come into effect at the plant this Friday.
“Whatever financial justification the company offers for its callous attitude, it is really indefensible that it has yet to notify the employees of who exactly is going to lose their job on Friday,” he said.
In a statement yesterday SR Technics said it had indicated to the Labour Court that it was not in a position to increase the redundancy package on offer as it is currently implementing a financial and operational restructuring of its group-wide operations
“The company has made it clear that it wants to do the best it can in difficult circumstances. However, due to the financial and commercial challenges which the company faces, it is not in a position to increase the funds available for the redundancy package and requested that the court accept its proposals as fair and reasonable in the circumstances and to recommend them for acceptance by the SR Technics Union Forum.”
A spokesman for Minister for Enterprise and Employment Mary Coughlan last night said: “There are a large number of expressions of interest in SR Technics.
“Several of these are being investigated by the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to see if they are commercially viable with a view to maintaining the largest possible number of operations and jobs on site.
“The agencies are moving as swiftly as possible in their negotiations.”