Manufacturing Company Vita Cortex have announced that they have reached an agreement with SIPTU in relation to a redundancy package for staff. This brings to an end a 139 day sit in from the 32 staff, which began on the 16th December 2011.
Staff had based their sit in on the premise that Vita Cortex would not honour the agreement made to pay redundancy of 2.9 weeks per year of service, and when made redundant back in December 2011 it would be without redundancy pay, which the Government would pay from the social insurance fund. This fund is designed for Companies who are unable to afford redundancy payments for staff, and apply to the Government through the inability to pay mechanism, whereby the Government will pay the redundancy sum and the Employer will then become a preferential creditor to the Government and have to pay back 85% of the redundancy amount. This is the redundancy lump sum less the 15% rebate available to employers from the Government.
Jack Ronan, the Owner of Vita Cortex, had claimed that they were not in a position to pay the redundancy amounts, however, SIPTU (through organiser Gerry McCormack) have claimed throughout this process that whilst Vita Cortex claim they are unable to pay the agreed 2.9 weeks the profitable sister company Vita Clean should honour this committment.
There has been widespread publicity of the workers situation since the sit in began, with numerous public figures lending their support to the workers, such as the Cork senior hurling team, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, human rights campaigner Noam Chomsky, former Irish soccer player Paul McGrath, musician Christy Moore, actor Cillian Murphy, and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. More recently the Taoiseach Enda Kenny has voiced his concern over the length of time the dispute has taken to be resolved and urged all parties to reach an agreement.
The LRC had also become involved in this case with both parties twice attending mediation sessions, however the talks were unsuccessful with the most recent talks breaking down last month after Vita Cortex expressing concern over the proposals issued by the mediators which they claim did not provide a solid basis for a resolution to the dispute.
the details of the deal made between SIPTU and Vita Cortex have yet to be released, however it is calculated that a package of at least €372,000 would be required.
The workers are still technically continuing their sit in and have said this will continue for a further two weeks until the money has reached their accounts however it is useful to see an end in sight to this situation, which has brought the matter of workers right and redundancies once again to the fore.
Manufacturing Company Vita Cortex have announced that they have reached an agreement with SIPTU in relation to a redundancy package for staff. This brings to an end a 139 day sit in from the 32 staff, which began on the 16th December 2011.
Staff had based their sit in on the premise that Vita Cortex would not honour the agreement made to pay redundancy of 2.9 weeks per year of service, and when made redundant back in December 2011 it would be without redundancy pay, which the Government would pay from the social insurance fund. This fund is designed for Companies who are unable to afford redundancy payments for staff, and apply to the Government through the inability to pay mechanism, whereby the Government will pay the redundancy sum and the Employer will then become a preferential creditor to the Government and have to pay back 85% of the redundancy amount. This is the redundancy lump sum less the 15% rebate available to employers from the Government.
Jack Ronan, the Owner of Vita Cortex, had claimed that they were not in a position to pay the redundancy amounts, however, SIPTU (through organiser Gerry McCormack) have claimed throughout this process that whilst Vita Cortex claim they are unable to pay the agreed 2.9 weeks the profitable sister company Vita Clean should honour this committment.
There has been widespread publicity of the workers situation since the sit in began, with numerous public figures lending their support to the workers, such as the Cork senior hurling team, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, human rights campaigner Noam Chomsky, former Irish soccer player Paul McGrath, musician Christy Moore, actor Cillian Murphy, and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. More recently the Taoiseach Enda Kenny has voiced his concern over the length of time the dispute has taken to be resolved and urged all parties to reach an agreement.
The LRC had also become involved in this case with both parties twice attending mediation sessions, however the talks were unsuccessful with the most recent talks breaking down last month after Vita Cortex expressing concern over the proposals issued by the mediators which they claim did not provide a solid basis for a resolution to the dispute.
the details of the deal made between SIPTU and Vita Cortex have yet to be released, however it is calculated that a package of at least €372,000 would be required.
The workers are still technically continuing their sit in and have said this will continue for a further two weeks until the money has reached their accounts however it is useful to see an end in sight to this situation, which has brought the matter of workers right and redundancies once again to the fore.
