What started over 159 days ago has finally ended with the signing of an agreement by all parties on Thursday 3rd of May. The long running Vita Cortex redundancy dispute has finally been resolved. Details of this agreement have not been disclosed but SIPTU have reported satisfaction with the agreement. However distrust remains with workers expected to remain on site until the redundancy payments are made. So ends nearly six months of legal wrangling, rounds of mediation, protests and uncertainty - the end is in sight.
On 16th of December 2011 the employees involved downed tools for the last time as their redundancy from Vita Cortex came into effect. The redundancy had been announced and workers were aware that this was to be their last date of employment with the manufacturing company. This date also marks the start of what has become one of the longest running disputes in Irish industrial relations history. The 32 former workers involved claimed that they were entitled to redundancy payment of 2.9 weeks per year of service, this being the 2 weeks statutory entitlement plus an ex gratia redundancy payment of 0.9 weeks. The employees claimed that this ex-gratia redundancy had been agreed upon in September 2011 when some other former workers of Vita Cortex were made redundant and received similar over and above the statutory minimum. From the outset of the dispute Vita Cortex has denied the agreement of the ex gratia payment stating they were financially unable to meet even the statutory payments of 2 weeks never mind an additional 0.9 weeks on top up of that. The dispute resulted in the infamous “sit-in” which commenced on the 16th of December when Vita Cortex, allegedly, reneged on an agreement to pay redundancy at 2.9 weeks per year of service.
The Vita Cortex stance has been that they never agreed to these payments and, while they accept that other former employees were paid this ex gratia, that these employees in question never received any assurances over the payment of an additional 0.9 weeks per year of service. They stated that they had an inability to pay even the statutory redundancy payments and that the Government had to pick up the bill for the statutory payments through the Social Insurance Fund. While 0.9 weeks does not seem to be a substantial increase on paper it is important to note that some of these employees had worked for the company for over 40 years and that the redundancy payments were going to cost the company up to €1.2 million. However, SIPTU, the trade union representing most of the workers, had pointed to a bank account under the name of a sister company of Vita Cortex that should be used for the workers ex-gratia redundancy payments. This account was now in the hands of NAMA as security for loans taken out with AIB. NAMA unequivocally stated that the two companies were separate legal entities and that it simply could not pay out the money to the workers stating they had no legal basis for doing so. Thus began the toing and froing between who owned what.
Since then the entire affair has rarely been out of the news. Remaining a relevant story at the forefront of the public consciousness had been ensured largely through a dedicated campaign by the former employees to ensure their fight was not forgotten. This case highlights the impact the use of social media such as Twitter and Facebook can have, with some 13,000 people following developments in the employee’s plight over these types of sites. Clever use of this new media source was successfully exploited by the former employees and their supporters in raising the issue to the public and in gaining high profile support for their cause with celebrities such as Sir Alex Ferguson and Noam Chomsky sending messages of support for the former employees.
The dispute hit a particular deadlock when the LRC stated that they could not mediate the dispute as the issue did not concern a refusal to pay but instead concerned an inability to pay which essentially meant that the matter could not be resolved through mediation. Subsequently Vita Cortex made an offer of €180,000 in full and final settlement of the dispute. This offer was intended to resolve the dispute but only really served to intensify it as it was deemed to seriously weaken the company’s argument of an inability to pay and, as a result, the offer was roundly rejected by the former employees, particularly given that the 0.9 figure was closer to €400,000. At this stage the LRC did become involved as money was on the table and a deal could therefore be brokered but a mutually acceptable conclusion was not reached and the employees intensified their campaign through street marches and picketing.
In the meantime, the former workers continued to receive significant high profile support with Joan Burton, Eamon Gilmore and Enda Kenny all voicing their support for the workers and concern for their plight. In the face of this support an agreement was finally reached 139 days after the initial dispute was raised. As previously stated, details have not been released as to the contents of this agreement. However, the ramifications of this dispute may be significant in the long term.
