Republican News · Thursday 7 November 2002

Ahern's broken promise to IFI workers

The illegal and unfair treatment of Irish Fertiliser Industry workers in Belfast, Arklow and Cork was highlighted by Arthur Morgan in Leinster House this week.

Morgan said, "It was stated earlier that this House is not a crèche but some Ministers clearly think it is. The government is telling IFI workers that Enterprise Ireland will help them to start their own businesses. Doing what, I ask? It will not be making fertiliser."

Speaking on a debate on a supplementary estimate for redundancy payments to IFI workers, Morgan said it was "a sleight of hand and yet another example of bad faith, broken promises and bad practice by the government, which should be setting the best possible standards as an employer.

"The workers who met the Taoiseach last Friday night left that meeting believing that today's estimate was an interim and not a final payment. Yet, today we find the Taoiseach's promise of last Friday does not hold in the cold light of day."

"This is but the last in a series of blows inflicted on IFI workers. Why were the workers in the Cork plant summarily dismissed with one hour's notice, their lunches left uneaten? Why are they not being paid severance pay? Why was no statutory notice given? Even worse is the state of the workers' pension fund, which has been shown to have a 40% shortfall. Has this fund been put in the care of the liquidator and if so, why?

"This Supplementary Estimate clearly does not deal with the pension shortfall. Given that it is the 51% shareholder, how does the government propose to deal with this problem?"

Morgan also highlighted the plight of IFI workers who this week "are travelling to ICI headquarters in Britain, paying for their own flights, to negotiate with the other shareholder in the company.

"The workers have intimated that the government has told them it will match any payment secured from ICI, which made profits of £569 million last year. Surely an Irish government should take a more fair and honest stance and fulfill its responsibility as an employer. What example is the government setting for the private sector?

"In the context of the island economy where we need to show a just and prudent record as an employer, what example are we setting for Northern workers, who are also redundant and facing diminished pensions?"

"The Department's website has a new feature of an online redundancy calculator. One wonders how it calculates redundancy payments. If it is based on the recent track record of the Department, the results would be very interesting and I hope the Minister for Finance was not responsible for formulating the calculator's programme."