WORKERS at Bell Lines in Waterford, which is in examinership, are to meet today to consider industrial action if the company proceeds with a scheme of selective compulsory redundancies. It could shed up to half the workforce at Belview terminal.
Up to 30 jobs are threatened under a "scheme of arrangement" designed to restructure Bell Lines, which has debts of about £20 million.
Fears were expressed yesterday that the pressure for immediate redundancies could deepen the crisis at Bell Lines and threaten the continuity of operations at the sport which handles a major portion of the Republic's external container freight traffic.
Negotiations between management, workers and unions on a voluntary redundancy package broke down earlier this week. An ATGWU official in Waterford, Mr Walter Cullen, said the company had indicated on Monday it had not received sufficient applications for the voluntary package.
He said the company believed the examiner, Mr David Hughes, of Ernst & Young, would notify particular employees in writing that, as part of the restructuring scheme, they would now become creditors of the company. As such, they would be made redundant and receive compensation of only two weeks' pay per year of service plus statutory entitlements.
"We have been unable to get from management or the examiner the criteria used to select the people on this list," said Mr Cullen. "The workers feel very bitter about the way this whole issue has been dealt with."
Some Bell workers have, revealed they have been told they are included on the list of those who will be compelled to take redundancy.
Among them is a Fine Gael candidate for the Waterford constituency in the next election, Mr Maurice Cummins, who has worked at Bell for 25 years.
Mr Cummins, a former Lord Mayor of Waterford, said the examinership needs to be put under scrutiny and he intended to raise it at every possible opportunity.
Mr Martin Cullen TD, the Fianna Fail candidate for Waterford, said last week that workers had been shocked at the short time allowed to consider the voluntary redundancy offer.
He said the workforce had demonstrated tremendous commitment to the company by working overtime without pay for several months earlier this year.
The examiner, who is to report to the High Court next week, has been working on a restructuring plan in conjunction with executives of the Irish Continental Group (ICG), which has a 25 per cent stake in Bell Lines.
Mr Cullen said the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, should make clear to the board of ICG that the State and the taxpayer had an enormous investment in Waterford port.
There should be an insistence upon a continued commitment from them, and no diminution of the volume of trade through the port would be acceptable.
He said his union's members were prepared to face redundancies and rationalisation, but any lists of a compulsory nature would not be accepted. He claimed the company had refused to discuss the option of work sharing at the port, which could be a feasible alternative.