Management at the Irish Glass Bottle plant in Ringsend, Dublin, have withdrawn their reservations about establishing a trust fund for employees as part of an agreement brokered by the Labour Court aimed at settling a three-week dispute over redundancy payments.
The change has enabled the 260 SIPTU workers at the plant to accept the formula by a three-to-one majority. It also means the plan to secure the assets of IGB, agreed after more than 14 hours of Labour Court talks on Thursday, will go ahead. Workers have agreed to co-operate in the removal of moulds from the plant and the realisation of the cash value of the net working capital.
"The agreement brokered by the Labour Court guarantees that the proceeds of the sale of the realisable stock - estimated to be worth €12 million - will be held in a special bank account, controlled by two trustees, one from the ICTU and the other from IGB," said Mr Gerry Lynch, SIPTU branch secretary. The money raised will be for the sole benefit of IGB employees, he emphasised.
A letter signed on behalf of the IGB personnel manager, Mr Finbarr Duggan, received two hours before the SIPTU members were about to ballot on Thursday evening, had caused consternation among workers.
It had said: "The company wishes to record its acceptance of the document issued by the court on the basis that it is our understanding that, until such time as the dispute with the company is settled, the costs of running the site (rent, rates, insurance, security, pest control, water and electricity) will be met from the fund."
The letter added to the sense of anger and frustration felt by employees already in dispute with the company over its rejection of the five weeks per year of service plus statutory entitlements recommended earlier by the Labour Court.
Within two hours, however, the Ardagh management had relented and agreed to fully accept, without reservation, the court's proposal that the fund would be for the sole use of employees.
However, the dispute continues over management's rejection of the redundancy package proposed by the court. SIPTU, which represents the majority of workers at the plant, confirmed that it was still in dispute with the company.
"We will engage with any third party in an effort to reach a satisfactory outcome for the workers in IGB, but we will not be bullied into accepting anything less than the full terms of the Labour Court recommendation," Mr Lynch said.