Waterford Crystal to shed 280 jobs

WORKERS AT Waterford Crystal's flagship Kilbarry plant are to meet management this morning when plans for 280 redundancies will be detailed.

It is the second time that the company has announced redundancies in the past year. Last November, 492 jobs were cut - although 200 of these redundancies were not taken up.

Officials from the trade union Unite at the plant will seek to meet Taoiseach Brian Cowen and a number of Ministers regarding the retention of a "viable manufacturing presence" in the city.

A general meeting of Unite members will follow the briefing by management this afternoon in the city. The terms of redundancies will be discussed as well as proposals to secure a future for the plant in Waterford.

Unite's regional industrial organiser, Walter Cullen, said last night: "There has to be another viable alternative to job losses. After the general meeting, we will know more - we haven't even gotten into the basis of how they made the decision."

Mr Cullen confirmed if the latest redundancies go ahead, 70 manufacturing jobs would remain at the plant, while 55 employees will be employed in the Waterford Crystal visitors' centre at Kilbarry.

"With what they've said they will retain, they can't have anything else in mind other than making it [Kilbarry] a tourist attraction."

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Mr Cullen had said: "The last round of restructuring was agreed on the basis of saving 500 jobs in Waterford. The ink is barely dry on this and now we are faced with a reduction of jobs which would reduce manufacturing employment to less than 100. The announcement is the worst possible news for the people of Waterford, for local businesses, and for the whole region. It comes at the worst possible time and workers are in a state of shock."

A company spokesman would not be drawn on the issue, but confirmed that "scheduled talks" were ongoing with union representatives. The Kilbarry plant had more than 3,000 employees in the 1980s. The latest announcement could result in the company closing the manufacturing facility at Kilbarry. There is speculation that the outsourcing of production to companies in Europe and possibly Asia might begin next year.

A State guarantee on a €39 million loan to parent company Waterford Wedgwood was turned down last May, while the company had debts of over €470 million and had a significant deficit in its pension fund.

The group, which suffered a €242 million loss last year, ran out of credit with banks due to covenants on existing loans and the company found borrowing difficult to secure during the credit crunch. The Government's rejection of the guarantee came weeks after management announced that the plant would close for up to three weeks during the summer in an effort to save money.

• A major Cork pharmaceutical company announced yesterday it is to let 25 workers go from its 240-strong workforce by the end of the year. The job cuts at Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd, a subsidiary of Johnson Johnson, are part of a voluntary redundancy programme and union representatives fear there may be more job losses ahead. Staff at the Little Island plant in Cork were presented with the voluntary redundancy package yesterday after a review of its manufacturing operations.