One of the oldest companies in Wexford is to close with the loss of 62 jobs. A subsidiary of Waterford Stanley, Pierce Engineering currently occupies an eight-acre site on Mill Road in the town where it employed 120 people as recently as June 2000.
This week, 58 per cent of the workers voted to reject a relocation plan supported by the Labour Court and their trade union, Amicus-AEEU (Amalgamated and Electrical Engineering Union).
The Labour Court had also rejected a claim from the workforce for an upfront redundancy payment linked to the relocation. However, the workers did succeed in having the minimum payment for agreeing to move raised from €700 to €1,000.
Mr Gerry Currid, a director of Pierce Engineering and joint managing director of Waterford Stanley, said yesterday the company could not go any further.
"We have been negotiating with the unions and the workforce for the past five months about the relocation issue. We have been to the Labour Relations Commission twice and finally to the Labour Court.
"During the intervening periods we continued to amend our agreement and the Labour Court in their decision described our terms as more than generous. We had offered workers four times the average payment in this country for relocations of this type."
Employees at the engineering plant had expressed concern that the move from a central location in Wexford to a new site three miles away would ultimately facilitate closure and place redundancy payments at risk.
Pierce Engineering had offered employees €210 for every year of service for an agreement to move to the new site.
"To ease any fears over closure we had given an unprecedented guarantee that if the plant closed within five years, we would give people the same redundancy as they would have received if the move had never been made," Mr Currid said.
"The workers knew that a consequence of rejecting the recommendation was that the plant would close and they were left under no illusions in this regard.
"The current building is in a bad state of repair and would require huge sums of money to put right while we have a new facility ready to move into. Without the agreement of the workers we have no option but to close the business."
Chief union negotiator Mr Billy Kyne of Amicus-AEEU said he would continue efforts to save the jobs. While appealing to Mr Currid to respond to his rescue bid, Mr Kyne admitted that hope was now fading that any of the 62 jobs can be saved.
A statement from the management of Pierce Engineering Ltd last night said it was extremely disappointed by the decision of the workforce yesterday to reject the Labour Court recommendations .
Following consideration of all issues at a board meeting, it added, and given the rejection by the staff of the relocation proposals, the board decided to wind down and close the company.
Pierce Engineering had a viable future, the statement continued, if the company had relocated without delay allowing management to implement its plans and develop the business.
Over the past six months, the company had negotiated with the workforce and had tried to achieve a satisfactory conclusion for all concerned.
The statement concluded that Pierce Engineering said all payments outstanding to all creditors would be fully honoured.