Construction workers at Intel's Fab 24 site have voted overwhelmingly to accept "comfort payments" worth around £2 million. The payments are compensation for the slowdown of construction work on the plant, which means 1,300 workers will be laid off until next year.

Intel is understood to have sanctioned the payments, although negotiations were done at arm's length between building contractors and unions. The package provides for lump sums of £1,250 for workers employed for 13 weeks or less at the Leixlip, Co Kildare site, £2,000 for workers employed between 14 weeks and 26 weeks and £2,500 for workers employed for more than 26 weeks.

The lump sums will be tax free because they are redundancy payments. Where workers are being redeployed on other sites, tax will be stopped.

The payments will go to agency workers, many of them non-EU migrants, as well as direct employees of the main contractors. Many agency workers have relatively short terms of employment on site, compared with direct employees.