Waterford’s largest private sector employer Bausch & Lomb is to cut 195 staff from its workforce and keep the remaining staff on short-time working until the end of April at the earliest.
In a series of meetings today, the 1400 staff at the company, which makes contact lenses and other eye healthcare products, were told the devastating news by management who said they hoped to achieve the job cuts through voluntary redundancies.
Staff had been bracing themselves for bad news in recent days having been summoned to the meetings, which took place in three sessions throughout the afternoon.
In a statement this evening, the company said the redundancies were necessary “to balance manufacturing capacity with demand for products made in Ireland due to changes in the product mix in its portfolio”.
“Bausch & Lomb remains committed to maintaining its facility in Waterford as a centre of manufacturing excellence but in order to ensure this, inefficiencies must be completely eliminated,” said a spokesperson.
“We deeply regret having to make employees redundant and we understand that this is a difficult and distressing time for those employees facing an uncertain future.”
The deadline for voluntary redundancies is April 30th. The company have said they will negotiate packages for the affected workers with unions Siptu – who represent about 1,200 staff at the plant – and the TEEU.
Marie Butler, Siptu’s branch organiser in Waterford, said the union was obviously disappointed with the announcement but that management had reiterated their commitment to Waterford as well as to its investment programme at the plant and the continued upskilling of the workforce through the FAS certification scheme.
“Naturally we are disappointed as we had hoped that the recent switch to short-time working (introduced in February) would have avoided the need for job losses at the plant. We are also disappointed that the company could not rule out the possibility of further redundancies in the future but the short-time working system will be reviewed in April after the redundancies begin to take effect.”
She added that of the 195 redundancies at the plant, 185 would involve Siptu members and ten would involve TEEU members.
Leaving the plant after the meetings, workers were reluctant to talk.
But Brenda O’Neill-Aari, from Ferrybank, who has worked for the company for 27 years, said staff were devastated.
“The fear amongst the workers is that this is just the beginning,” she said.
“This is the biggest blow we’ve been given since the company started here. Everyone is very worried and upset.”
She said people also didn’t believe the company would achieve 195 voluntary redundancies. “If it was two years ago, it might be different but in the present climate....”
Meanwhile, Terry Wall from Tramore who has worked in the plant for 10 years, said staff felt very much in the dark about their future.
“We knew what to expect before we went in because information was leaked to the media but we don’t really know now what the future holds.”
Mayor of Waterford city Jack Walsh said the redundancies were regrettable but he remained optimistic about the company’s future and its long-term commitment to retaining a significant number of manufacturing jobs in the city and the region.
“While nobody can be certain about the future, the action being taken by Bausch & Lomb today and over the past weeks will hopefully be sufficient to return it to a position where it is winning new business for its Waterford operation and perhaps at some future time, actually adding to its workforce here,” he said.
Waterford Labour TD Brian O’Shea said the news was a major blow to the workers who will lose their jobs, and their families.
“The Government must make every effort to assist the company in terms of getting back to full-time working and securing the greatest possible number of jobs going forward,” he said.