Outokompu, the Finnish owner of Tara Mines, has endorsed a rescue package for the troubled Navan plant which will save the jobs of its 625-strong workforce. The proposals provide for an employee gain-sharing plan and tax breaks to minimise short-term impact of a 20-25 per cent pay cut for miners.
The company endorsed the proposals after a day-long meeting in Dublin yesterday. A spokeswoman said that the company believed the formula could enable the mine "to become competitive and profitable, therefore securing its future and the maximum possible employment".
Some 70 MSF members at the mine - technical, administrative and supervisory staff - are expected to back the agreement at a meeting this morning. The rest of the workforce has already done so.
The first group to accept the deal, early on Saturday afternoon, were the 110 craftworkers, whose chairman, Mr Eamon Devoy, described the scheme as "a leap of faith".
SIPTU members met from noon until 4.30 p.m. on Saturday and for the first hour it looked as if the terms might be rejected, but eventually they voted overwhelmingly for acceptance. The worst affected group, the direct miners, voted by 102 to 15 for the terms.
SIPTU's regional secretary, Mr Jack O'Connor, who was the chief union negotiator at the talks, called on the company last night to make an early start on a new development plan for the mine.
An investment of £75 million is needed over the next three years to ensure the opening up of rich ore deposits in its south-western sector. "If a commitment was to be made by the company in the near future, it would greatly assist the settling down process after the recent tensions," Mr O'Connor said.
The plan to save the 630 jobs at Tara Mines was hammered out in four days of talks. They began after the chairman of Meath County Council, Mr Brian Fitzgerald, intervened on Wednesday with a proposal that the SIPTU president, Mr Jimmy Somers, and IBEC director, Mr Turlough O'Sullivan, be brought in to facilitate negotiations chaired by himself.
Mr Fitzgerald "showed considerable guts and initiative when everyone else was writing the place off", Mr O'Connor said yesterday. He also thanked Mr Somers and Mr O'Sullivan for agreeing to make themselves available at such short notice to help in an apparently hopeless situation, as well as the company's management team.
A major breakthrough came on Friday evening, when the Minister for the Environment and local TD, Mr Dempsey, visited the talks in Navan to tell negotiators that he had secured Cabinet approval for an amendment to the 1997 Finance Act. The Act allows extra tax relief for 12 months to workers facing cuts in earnings of up to 10 per cent.
On Thursday Mr O'Connor had suggested that if the Act limit could be raised to cover wage cuts of up to 20 per cent, it would protect miners' incomes for the critical period in the mines operations. He praised Mr Dempsey yesterday for the speed and effectiveness of his response.
Another key factor in securing agreement was the introduction of the gain-sharing scheme. Under this, employees will share in gains made by the company if zinc prices rise. However they must also achieve company targets to reduce costs by 15 per cent and increase productivity by 23 per cent to make the scheme operational.
Mr O'Connor estimated that employees could realistically expect between £3,000 and £4,000 a year from the scheme when prices increase.