The terms were negotiated in early July by company management and the Amalgamated Transport & General Workers Union (ATGWU) under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission.
Workers in the world famous glass manufacturer, Waterford Crystal, are currently examining a comprehensive set of restructuring proposals, which include redundancy payouts up to EUR 116,000, deferred pension options, relocation payments and redeployment terms.
The terms were negotiated in early July by company management and the Amalgamated Transport & General Workers Union (ATGWU) under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission.
Waterford Crystal, which is the Irish-based arm of the Waterford Wedgwood group, is shedding 1,800 jobs worldwide, including 390 in the soon-to-closed Dungarvan plant in, Co Waterford and a further 95 in the main plant in Waterford City. Just under 1,000 jobs will remain there. In the early 1980s, the company employed 3,000 workers in both of its Irish locations.
The company is funding the package through a rights issue of EUR 100 million and plans to achieve cost savings of EUR 90 million a year.
Rather than union members voting on the terms collectively, the ATGWU and company have agreed that each worker will receive a customized version of the proposed deal to ascertain how it applies to him or her. In the negotiations, the key gain made by the union was to raise the initial offer to 'cap' on the redundancy pay formula for workers with 21 years service or more, from two years to three.
The basic redundancy formula is six weeks pay for each year of service. A 'day' craft worker with 30 years service can expect up to EUR 116,000, while general workers with the same level of service can expect EUR 63,000 (grade A) and EUR 60,000 (grade B)
The package also contains detailed proposals on re-deployment for craft workers, which include lump sum compensation payments based on years of service. These payments vary between EUR 25,460 for someone with 20 years service, up to EUR 40,760 for someone on 40 years service.
In an observation on the craft re-deployment offer, the independent weekly magazine, Industrial Relations News (IRN), noted that many of the craft workers joined the company as apprentices at ages as young as 15 or 16 in the 1960s. This was at a time when demand for such skills was at a premium and the product could not be produced fast enough to meet burgeoning demand in the company’s main market, the United States. IRN commented that 'some of these craft workers are now in their mid-fifties and may foresee redeployment as an attractive option, albeit in a lower paid job, but with a pension at the end of it'.
Changes are also proposed in a number of other conditions, such as death-in-benefit insurance, the medical scheme, the drug scheme and in education and training provisions. Separate negotiations are due to take place on the company’s plan to shave a further EUR 5.5 million off costs by changing a number of benefits and by further extending the payment date for the next phase (2.5%) of the national pay agreement, Sustaining Progress
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Eurofound doporučuje citovat tuto publikaci následujícím způsobem.
Eurofound (2005), Waterford Crystal redundancy plan unveiled, article.
