A last-minute bid to stop 600 jobs being lost at aviation firm SR Technics this afternoon has failed after the company refused to consider allowing workers to take two-weeks unpaid leave while the IDA evaluates bids for the firm.
Over half of the workers workers at the Dublin airport-based company are due to be made redundant this afternoon and SR Technics plans to let go a further 100 employees later this month. All remaining activities at the company are expected to be wound down or transferred to other providers by the end of August.
As many as 30 expressions of interest have been made in SR Technics and the IDA is currently in negotiations with four groups who wish to take over the company. However, the IDA has warned that it may take up to two weeks to evaluate the various bids.
The trade union Siptu, which met with representatives from the IDA this morning, asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan to intervene to see if SR Technics would allow employees to take two-weeks unpaid leave while the IDA considered the bids but the company is believed to have refused to consider this.
The employees due to be made redundant will now be laid-off at the end of the day. However, Siptu has said it is hopeful that some of the jobs at the facility may be saved if a successful buyer can be found over the next two weeks.
"SR Technics decision not to allow workers to take the unpaid leave means that 600 workers are facing the dole from Monday," Siptu branch organiser Pat Ward told The Irish Times.
"This is an awful shame. If there had been the political will and goodwill from SR Technics then the situation they face would be different," he added.
Earlier today, Siptu called on the Government to "stop dithering" and take decisive action to save jobs at the firm.
It has warned that workers will take industrial action fromif troubled airline company SR Technics (SRT) fails to improve the redundancy package on offer.
Speaking on RTÉ radio earlier today, Mr Ward said a successful resolution to the problem "lay firmly in the hands of the Government. "
"This is the first real test of the Government's commitment to keep strategic industries afloat and provide a floor below which employment will not be allowed to fall," said Mr Wall.
"The time for dithering is over and the Government, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland have to act and act swiftly to save this industry and save those 600 jobs."
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said officals were working round the clock to assess proposals from bidders.
"I believe that some of the jobs can be saved," he said on Morning Ireland. "There are a number of proposals in, they have to be appraised and the IDA are working flat out, as is the Tánaiste and the department to try and assess each one to make sure it is financially viable."
"We are desperately trying to ensure that these kind of skilled jobs...are retained here in Ireland and we will leave no stone unturned to try and ensure we can do that but it has to be a viable proposition," he added.
More than 1,000 workers at SR Technics voted yesterday to accept the Labour Court recommendation on redundancies. However, the company said it had nothing to add to its previous statement, in which it rejected the court’s recommendation to double the funding for redundancies and to address any deficit in the pension scheme.