Fruit of the Loom, which once employed nearly 3,000 people in the northwest, will cease all operations in Buncrana, Co Donegal, on May 26th. Management confirmed the phasing out of production in Buncrana following a meeting with Siptu earlier in the week.
A total of 70 workers are expected to finish up at the end of March, while the shutdown of machinery on May 26th will result in 100 further redundancies. It is understood around 12 workers chose to finish up early last week.
A further 90 will be retained in Buncrana until December to help the company relocate its entire operation, including machinery, to Skhirat, Morocco. The remaining 12 employees, paid hourly, will be retained after January 2007, to assist with the start-up of production in Skhirat.
Meanwhile, it is understood around 200 workers at the company's Derry plant in Campsie, will meet with union representatives shortly to discuss the timing of its closure .
In a statement this week, the company said: "Fruit of the Loom has consulted fully with all employees and union officials throughout the shutdown and relocation process and will continue to do so in the months ahead." Senior Siptu branch secretary for Donegal, Seán Reilly, confirmed that the company had honoured its commitment to keep the union informed about redundancies.
"This is a very dark day for the Inishowen peninsula. We would urge the Government to take action immediately to secure alternative jobs for those being made redundant.
"Replacement jobs have not been secured for the thousands that have been lost," he said.
Mr Reilly added that Co Donegal and Inishowen, in particular, now had to be considered an "unemployment blackspot" and made an immediate priority for replacement investment.
Employees will get a total of nearly five weeks' pay per year of service including a statutory entitlement of two weeks' pay per year served and one extra week's wage, the union confirmed.
Buncrana town mayor Cllr Pádraig MacLochlainn criticised the Government for failing to find alternative employment for the area. He backed a call by his Sinn Féin colleague Mitchel McLaughlin MLA, for the northwest to be designated an area of special economic need.
"It is time for a radical departure from the laid-back and indifferent approach to tackling the jobs crisis in the northwest that we have seen to date."