THE GOVERNMENT was yesterday urged to set up a jobs taskforce for Waterford after the city’s second largest employer, Teva Pharmaceuticals Ireland, announced that it is to make 315 of the 705 staff at its plant in the city redundant.
The call came from the Mayor of Waterford, Councillor John Halligan who described the Teva jobs cut as “another devastating blow” for Waterford following major job losses at Waterford Crystal, Waterford Stanley, ABB Transformers and Bausch Lomb.
“The Government has to realise that Waterford as a relatively small city cannot sustain having nearly 13,000 people unemployed. The consequences of that is that the spending power of probably 30,000 is affected which could very well destroy the Waterford economy,” he said.
Workers were called to a meeting with management yesterday morning, where they were informed that the pharmaceutical company plans to close its manufacturing plant in Waterford next year with the loss of 315 jobs.
Teva Pharmaceuticals Ireland’s managing director, Dr Tom McCabe, said the decision to close the facility was due to having to operate in a high-cost environment in Ireland compared to other Teva facilities and their competitors. Dr McCabe said the Waterford operation had over the past three years cut the cost of making tablets by 50 per cent, but it was still three times higher than the average cost of making the tablets at Teva plants in Poland, Hungary, Croatia and the Czech Republic.
He said wage costs were higher in Ireland and the company was also paying high charges for electricity. This made it difficult to contain costs at the Waterford plant, which produces less than 10 per cent of Teva’s tablets.
Dr McCabe said the firm, which is owned by an Israeli consortium and employs 38,000 in 80 countries worldwide, had yet to decide to which of the cheaper eastern European locations it would transfer tablet manufacturing when the Waterford plant closes.
But he stressed that the remaining jobs at two plants in Waterford that manufacture inhalation products and at an RD facility were secure. Teva Pharmaceutical Ireland also employs 25 more people in a commercial operation at Dundalk in Co Louth which is unaffected.
Dr McCabe said the company would offer a generous redundancy package of 5½ weeks wages per year of service which, together with their statutory entitlement plus a loyalty payment, would work out at about six weeks wages per year of service.
'Everybody's just devastated . . .'
Workers at the Teva Pharmaceuticals oral solid dose plant were shocked to learn that the company would shed 315 jobs over the next year.
Workers were told on Thursday to attend a meeting with management yesterday morning. Worker Sharon Kennedy said: “No union was informed and we only heard about this yesterday evening. I’m out on maternity at the moment and we were called in for this meeting here today. Our business is gone here in the solid dose facility, but the others across the road in the other facility – in inhalations – are allowed to keep their jobs.
“Some of them are there less than four, five years . . . some of us are here over 14 years and our jobs are gone.”
John Dunne, who has been working with the company for over 19 years, said: “We could see it coming; I think the only ones who couldn’t see it coming is the management themselves . . . we could see it coming with the last year.”
Lynn Barry said: “We can’t believe this is after happening; I mean, 315 jobs? It’s unreal, we can’t believe it.”
She said unions would have to negotiate with management regarding the cuts, as some workers with longer service records were going to lose their jobs before those with fewer years working with the same company.
Hazel McCarthy said: “This is devastating – and for the town itself. Everybody’s in the same boat; everybody’s just devastated. People are more
mad now than anything else . . . the way it just came out of the blue. People weren’t given any notice, nothing,” added Ms McCarthy. – CIARÁN MURPHY
