Louth Labour TD Ged Nash has said Glen Dimplex is “paying nothing but lip service to the industrial relations machinery of the State” as it seeks to scale back the company’s operations in Dunleer.
He said: “When the company announced a complex restructuring plan in February, the announcement was made in such a way as to draw the eye to their pledges of long-term investment in Dunleer.
“The company did also make it clear that they planned to seek redundancies in Dunleer and the scale of this and the impact on well-established local jobs and livelihoods in terms of the company’s proposals is only now becoming clear.
“Since February I have remained in regular contact with colleagues in SIPTU on this important issue for local workers and it is clear to me that the company has been playing a game of cat and mouse with workers and their union.
“They were at the WRC over the last two weeks, and it seems to me that the company has paid lip service only to the industrial relations machinery of the State.
“Since today’s general meeting of SIPTU members at the facility, the redundancy package proposed by the firm is public knowledge locally.
“In short it is derisory and falls far short of previous packages negotiated in prior redundancy programmes. It is fair to anticipate that this will be treated with the contempt it deserved by the workers affected.
“In all my years representing the area, I have never seen the workers at this facility which is synonymous with Dunleer, so angry and frustrated.
“Glen Dimplex has been good for Mid-Louth and their workers and the value their hard work, skills and loyalty has delivered for Glen Dimplex should be recognised in a package that is fair, decent and is benchmarked against established norms.”
