Fine Gael Deputy Paudie Coffey and his Labour
counterpart Ciara Conway as well as Fine Gael Senator Maurice Cummins and Sinn Fein Senator
David Cullinane met with SIPTU officials today at the Tower Hotel in Waterford
to discuss the treat of job losses and wage cuts at one of the counties largest
private employers Bausch and Lomb.
The company
which manufactures Contact Lenses last week announced that it was seeking 200 redundancies
amongst its 1,100 work force and were looking for the remainder of the staff to
take a 20 per cent pay cut or the plant could be forced to close.
Workers were told €20 million in
savings had to be made just to keep the facility open and according to
management, payroll costs are running 30 per cent more in Waterford than at its
base in Rochester, New York, and these costs need to be lowered to keep the
Waterford base viable.
Speaking on his way into the meeting
today, SIPTU Official Alan O’Leary said he wanted TDs and senators to seek more
time to discuss the management plans and that the June 17 deadline for the
conclusion of cost-cutting talks be put back.
SIPTU represents about 900 of the
workforce at the factory and said that it was unfair that the staff were given
just two weeks to either accept or reject the deal put to them by the company.
Mr. O’Leary added that they were
looking for the local politicians to engage with government officials as it was
their understanding that Valeant the Canadian owners of the Bausch and Lomb
were engaging with management in Waterford as well as the IDA and the Jobs
Minister Richard Bruton.
The SIPTU official added that they
were hoping to achieve is to reduce the number of people affected by the
redundancy and come up with a range of measures to deal with this cost issue of
€20 million.
The 20 per cent pay cuts envisaged
by Bausch & Lomb are “unsustainable for workers” Mr. O’Leary said but added
“We’re not going to rule anything in or out at the moment. The stakes are
pretty high he added but we don’t want to end up having no agreement because
the impact of that would be catastrophic for the southeast.
SIPTU have also said that they want
to know when the Government first became aware that jobs at the company were
under threat.
Union Officials and Management at
Bausch and Lomb are set to begin discussions tomorrow.
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