This article is from page 4 of the 2009-02-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
THE introduction of short-time working hours at the Element Six plant in Shannon, originally planned for January, has been deferred until opts)
Management at Element Six are meeting with workers’ representa- tives this week after workers staged a sit-in at the factory last Friday.
Workers were protesting against the planned introduction of short-time working hours, which they claim would cut the wages of up to 180 workers at the plant by 50 per cent.
A compromise 1s believed to have been reached, whereby short-time would be introduced for a defined period of time and not indefinitely,
The new working arrangements were due to be introduced earlier this year but workers rejected the propos- al on the grounds that no negotiation had taken place between manage- ment and unions. Workers believe cost-cutting measures are not being introduced on an equitable basis.
The company announced last De- cember that it was seeking 150 re- dundancies as part of a group-wide Savings programme and sustainabil-
Tava) e-b ee
That figure has been reached through a combination of voluntary and compulsory redundancies.
One member of staff, speaking anonymously, said workers remained confident that union representatives would be able to negotiate a package that will share the financial burden in an equitable manner.
“No members of the management have taken their fair share of the fi- nancial burden. It has all been tar- geted at floor staff and that is why we were protesting.”
A meeting between staff and gen-
eral management is expected to take ECO AN KIL c1o).@
Element Six manufactures and dis- tributes industrial diamonds and su- per-hard materials and its products are mainly used in the manufacture of tools for such applications as drill- ing, sawing, cutting, grinding and polishing of different materials.
Element Six, which was established in the Shannon Free Zone in 1960 as De Beers, currently employs just un- Caen eee
The company is co-owned by South African diamond giant De Beers and Belgian company Umicore.