There was growing pessimism last night over the future of the Thermo King plant in Galway after the company warned its workers that they must accept its terms or face closure next Tuesday.
The chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission, Mr Kieran Mulvey, was last night continuing his efforts to get talks going before the 630 employees are laid off. The Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, personally requested Mr Mulvey's intervention. She appealed yesterday to both sides to look at the "big picture" rather than become enmeshed in procedural wrangles.
Yesterday morning the situation had looked more hopeful after the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, which represents almost 460 of the employees, offered to lift its overtime ban to allow negotiations to begin. However, the company last night ruled out talks unless the AEEU gave a commitment to abide by in-house procedures.
An AEEU official, Mr Tony Geoghegan, said last night that he was still hopeful that a settlement could be reached before Tuesday.
The AEEU says that the overtime ban was a response to the introduction of four-day working, while the company says that the AEEU first breached procedures by balloting members for industrial action before short-time working was introduced.
Last night Thermo King Europe repeated its warning that it would be forced to close the Galway plant next Tuesday "unless the current industrial relations issues are resolved by then".
A company spokesman said he could not speculate on how long the plant closure could last, or whether it might be permanent. However, he said that the company's other plants in Dublin and Shannon, which employ a further 300 people, were not affected by the dispute.
Short-time working was introduced in Galway because of a sharp fall in demand for Thermo King's refrigerated trailer units in Russia. It has also cut back production in the US and Denmark.