Body to review redundancy pay dispute at Dublin bottle plant

The National Implementation Body is to "keep in touch" with unions and management in a dispute over redundancy packages at the Irish Glass Bottle plant in Ringsend, Dublin.

The body held an informal meeting yesterday evening to discuss the industrial action at the plant, which is due to close on Friday with the loss of 380 jobs.

Earlier yesterday 250 SIPTU workers at the plant protested outside Government Buildings, the offices of the employers' group IBEC and the Fine Gael headquarters. Workers were protesting at the failure of the Ardagh Group, which owns the company, to accept a Labour Court recommendation on redundancy payments.

The court recommended a redundancy package of five weeks' wages for every year of service including statutory entitlements. The company was offering less than two weeks plus statutory. They had offered a voluntary package that was there in 1983, said Mr Gerry Lynch, secretary of SIPTU's electronics and engineering branch.

The Ardagh Group was "speculating with people's futures. They have a lease for a further 66 years on the site, and it is worth a fortune to them, but they are refusing to give a penny to the workers. Some of them have worked there for 40 years, and in some families there are two or three people working. It is part of the social and community fabric of Ringsend".

Mr Lynch said the plant workers believed the Taoiseach was going to resolve the issue. "The Taoiseach made a commitment in the Dáil last week and repeated it today," he said and he called on Mr Ahern to "honour his commitment".

Mr Ahern said yesterday that he had met both the union and company management last week. There were difficulties over property, but he had asked the National Implementation Body to look at the dispute.