Sacked workers staging a sit-in at the Visteon car components factory in west Belfast will contest any attempt to have them removed, they said today.
A legal bid due to be made in the High Court by the company administrators KPMG today to gain an order to have the workers evicted was adjourned until Friday.
The delay came after after a barrister was instructed only at the last moment to represent the workers and told the court he would challenge any eviction notice which may be ordered.
John Maguire, the unite shop steward at the plant, said the workers would wait to see what happened in court before deciding whether to voluntarily comply with any expulsion order.
He said: "We will wait and see and make that call after Friday.
"We don't expect a decision by the court that day, there is still a need for further negotiation."
Some of the 210 workers made redundant at the plant have been occupying the plant since March when they, and around 400 workers at two sister plants in England, were told their jobs were gone.
They refused to vacate the factory, claiming they had been given guarantees on pay and conditions when the company was hived off from Ford nine years ago.
Last week they rejected a deal which Visteon said would give most workers an initial cash payment equal to 16 weeks pay followed by additional payments which they said would equate to about what was in their employment agreement.
A similar sit-in at the Visteon site in Basildon, Essex ended after KPMG took court action against union leaders.
PA