Consolation for Fruit of the Loom workers

Fruit of the Loom workers in Donegal may be fretting in the current climate where they have no idea if and when their jobs will disappear.

One thing is pretty certain, however. If they do eventually lose their posts, they can expect better severance terms than 500 workers at the apparel firm Gitano of Jamaica, also a subsidiary of the US-based underwear maker, who are out of work today as the firm closed its Jamaican operations this week.

The Jamaican employees, who only heard the news on Wednesday, will receive redundancy payments from a total pool of $1 million - an average of less than $2,000 (€1,852 or £1,458) per person. Since 1994 the company has shifted labour-intensive sewing operations to the Caribbean and Central America. The closure of the Jamaican plant was said to be in keeping with Gitano's decision to consolidate its overseas operations in a recently constructed facility in Mexico, which enjoys trade advantages under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Well, that'll be a comfort to its former employees in the dark days ahead.