DELL’S ANNOUNCEMENT of an improved redundancy package for 1,900 workers due to be laid off in Limerick over the coming months was last night described as a “major climbdown”.
The firm announced details of the revised package late yesterday evening, just an hour ahead of a public meeting organised by staff to air their grievances over the original redundancy offer.
The 11th hour announcement was made by management at 5pm at the Raheen plant.
Under the revised package workers will get six weeks’ pay for every year of service, capped at 104 weeks, compared to the previous offer of 52 weeks which represented eight years of service.
Workers also now have the option of having their shift allowance included in their package or of taking an alternative option of having six months of health and life insurance paid for by the firm.
Workers were told that the doubling of the capping would benefit some 1,200 workers, some of whom have been employed by the company for up to 17 years.
Despite the announcement of the improved package, more than 100 workers turned up for last night’s public meeting at the Southcourt Hotel where a six-person committee was selected to represent employees’ views to management. The event was organised by Denis Ryan, a Dell employee for 10 years who has over recent weeks collected hundreds of signatures on a petition opposing the original package.
“I’m happy that it has got to this stage where management have recognised that there were 1,900 people who were very disappointed with what was on offer. We will take this back to management and discuss the package. The committee will negotiate on all these things,” said Mr Ryan.
Another Dell worker, Eamon Ryan, described the revised redundancy package as a “major climbdown” at the meeting.Mayor of Limerick Cllr John Gilligan said he was delighted that Dell “was finally beginning to live up to its corporate responsibility”. Also present were Fine Gael deputy Kieran O’Donnell and Labour deputy Jan O’Sullivan.