A GROUP of 300 SR Technics employees held a demonstration at the Swiss embassy in Dublin yesterday in protest at the company’s proposed €48 million redundancy package, which they say is unacceptable.
The protesters marched from Sydney Parade Dart station to the Ailesbury Road embassy, where the Swiss ambassador Beat Loeliger received a protest letter from two employees, David Gleeson and John Devlin.
The ambassador addressed the marchers, speaking for 10 minutes. He said that while he had sympathy for their plight, he could not intervene while negotiations were ongoing.
Mr Loeliger pointed out that Switzerland, where SR Technics has its headquarters, was struggling with economic problems of its own, but said the embassy door would remain open to any of the employees who wished to discuss the matter with him.
“The protest was held because staff felt it was important to impress on the Swiss ambassador their dissatisfaction with the way a Swiss company was treating its employees in this country,” Siptu’s Pat Whelan said. The redundancy package was little above the statutory minimum payment, he said.
“Some of these workers have 40 years of loyal service with the company. We know this is a cash-rich company and we are calling on the Government to exert pressure on SR Technics to come up with a much better deal.”
In a statement, SR Technics said the statutory consultation process with unions was ongoing but said its redundancy budget was “limited by the financial resources available to the wider group in the context of severely challenging market conditions”.
