FORMER WORKERS at the Vita Cortex plant in Cork have warmly welcomed pledges of support from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Siptu president Jack O’Connor for their campaign to secure redundancy payments.
The factory closed on December 16th and since then the former staff have been staging a sit-in in protest at the company’s failure to pay them their redundancy entitlements.
The company says €1.25 million to pay the workers’ redundancies has been frozen in the accounts of a sister firm that is now controlled by Nama.
In a statement yesterday Ictu said the 32 workers at the plant had been treated shamefully but had shown “great courage and determination in very difficult circumstances”.
“They can’t even get the statutory redundancy payments to which they are entitled. It’s so shabby that they are being treated in this way,” said Ictu general secretary David Begg.
Vita Cortex worker Jim Power said the former staff members occupying the Kinsale Road plant had received a great morale boost from both the Ictu statement and the visit by Siptu leader Mr O’Connor on Christmas Eve.
The Siptu president said the union intended to mobilise its members across the country in the new year if the Government and Nama failed to resolve the dispute.
“This dispute is with the employer and all sorts of reasons are being found to avoid addressing the issue, but there are authorities in this country who have it within their capacity to bring pressure to bear on the employer here to resolve this particular dispute,” he said.
Mr Power said all the workers were seeking was “a decent compromise” where those laid off on December 16th would receive the same terms of 2.9 weeks’ wages per year of service that was offered to others who had left the company.
Meeting that level of redundancy would cost €1.2 million for the employer, who would get a 60 per cent tax refund.
Workers have been told Nama has frozen a bank account of a sister company to Vita Cortex containing €2.5 million, but Nama says it cannot legally release the funds and it is up to Vita Cortex’s owners to resolve the issue.
Mr Power said the 32 staff were greatly encouraged by the support they were receiving from the people of Cork, including Cork hurling manager Jimmy Barry Murphy and Bishop John Buckley of Cork and Ross, who visited them over Christmas.
On Christmas Day the workers’ families joined them for a special Mass in the canteen celebrated by Fr Michael Murphy of Ballyphehane parish.
“We had a rota worked out so some of the younger men and women could go home to be with their families on Christmas morning for the opening of presents, and then more went home after mass for Christmas dinner,” said Mr Power.