Derry factory sit-in ends with redundancy deal

A sit-in by workers being made redundant at a French-owned car components factory in Derry ended last night after they received assurances about the level of their pay-offs.

The dispute at the Calcast plant at Campsie, Derry, centred around the length of notice they would be paid for.

The company decided 90 of the 102 workers would be paid off - meaning they would get just one month’s statutory notice.

Had it been all the staff paid off they would have been entitled to three months notice payment. The company was accused of tinkering with numbers to same itself money.

Under a new deal hammered out by unions tonight after the intervention of Foyle MP, SDLP leader Mark Durkan, the workers will get paid after 30 days notice, but with an enhanced redundancy package.

Philip Oakes of the Unite union said the length of statutory notice was no longer an issue.

“There is a lot of detail still to be thrashed out, but suffice it to say we have enhanced the redundancy package.

“We are still on the 30-day consultation, and I expect some employees may exit before that, but they are happy with what was reached during negotiations.”

Calcast, is a subsidiary of Paris based Montupet which has a factory at Dunmurry outside Belfast, and it is expected some of the 12 retained workers will be offered work in Dunmurry.

Earlier Mr Durkan had talks with both sides and told management at the factory its offer of negotiations only after the sit-in was over was neither “realistic or reasonable”.

Calcast made cylinder heads for the Ford Explorer 4x4, and blamed the demise of the plant on the global financial crisis and a plunge in sales of the Explorer.

Workers had feared the worst after being laid off for two weeks, but were ready to resume production when they arrived for work on Monday.

PA