CORK SUFFERED a jobs setback yesterday after one of the longest established pharmaceutical firms in the region, Schering Plough, announced it is to cut its workforce at its plant at Brinny in west Cork by 160 people.
Workers were briefed by management at the plant at Brinny at lunchtime yesterday on cost-reduction proposals which, the company said, were designed to secure the plant’s future in the corporation’s global network.
The plant, which at one point employed more than 1,000 staff, employs 519 people. It is expected that the staff reduction will take place over a three-year period, with management hoping the reduction can be obtained through voluntary redundancies.
In a statement, Schering Plough’s Brinny site director John Howell, said the proposed changes were designed to give the plant the opportunity to secure its future through further investment and growth.
Mr Howell said the job cuts presented “a superb opportunity” to work collectively through “a process where we can have a significant influence on securing a future where growth and further investment and development of the site remain a real possibility”.
The Irish Timesunderstands that the job cuts are part of a cost reduction review within Schering Plough, designed to increase the plant's competitiveness, which was initiated prior to the company's merger with Merck Sharpe and Dohme in 2009.
“This is about cutting the costs of production here at Brinny and increasing the plant’s competitiveness within the Schering organisation,” said a source.
Schering Plough’s plant at Brinny manufacturers active pharmaceutical ingredients for a number of the company’s leading drugs, including treatments for hepatitis C and rheumatoid arthritis as well as for its cancer treatment Intron A.
Products produced at the plant earn over €2 billion a year and are exported to 90 countries while the company is investing €19 million in the upgrading of technology and production facilities at the plant. West Cork Labour Senator Michael McCarthy, a former employee at the plant, said the news of the redundancies was a setback to the nearby towns Bandon and Kinsale and of the west Cork area in general.
“Schering Plough is a well-established employer in the west Cork area for a number of years. They have been there since 1972 and I would have to say that today’s announcement has created huge concern about the knock-on effect it will have in areas like Bandon and Kinsale.
“These are towns that already suffered job losses in manufacturing, retail and construction and the threat now to service providers in these towns on foot of today’s announcement is a very real concern,” he said.
Mr McCarthy said that having worked in the plant for four years until his election to the Seanad in 2002, he was well aware of the commitment that the staff gave to the company over the years.
“These job losses are a huge blow to the local area in the short term but looking further ahead, one can only hope that the savings that the company hopes to make from these job cuts will ensure the long term viability of the plant which is crucial for west Cork.”
He accused the Government of failing to develop a job protection policy which would safeguard the economy of rural Ireland. He also pointed out that every lost job was costing the exchequer on average €20,000 through social welfare payments and lost tax revenue.
Cork South Central Fine Gael TD Deirdre Clune said in addition to the huge personal turmoil that the announcement would cause to employees and their families, the job losses also highlighted Ireland’s competitiveness problems, which the Government needs to address.