STAFF OF award-winning technology firm Xsil are likely to have to wait at least another month before they learn if they will receive redundancy payments or their October salaries.
All staff of the company, which made a pretax profit of €8.5 million on sales of €38.3 million in 2006, were placed on temporary layoff at the beginning of November. On October 23rd, the 40 staff were told the board was not paying salaries on the basis of legal advice. Staff were placed on temporary layoff on November 3rd and have been unable to establish whether they will be made redundant or brought back to work.
Since the layoffs, founder and chairman Peter Conlon has been in negotiation with three parties to sell the firm’s technology and possibly save some of the jobs.
Mr Conlon confirmed to The Irish Times yesterday that staff had not been paid for October. He said his main priority was to complete a sale of Xsil’s technology and save as many jobs as possible.
“We are in discussion with three parties but the process has slowed, given the current economic conditions,” said Mr Conlon. Despite this, he said he was confident a deal would be concluded in the next four weeks.
He declined to name the parties he is negotiating with, citing confidentiality clauses.
Regarding payments to staff, Mr Conlon said he would “have to assess the situation and bring something to the board”.
Mr Conlon, a high-profile technology entrepreneur, pointed out he has not had an executive role in Xsil for two years and was now trying to rescue the situation.
Xsil is currently listed for strike off by the Companies Registration Office, having failed to file accounts for 2007. Mr Conlon said that he was “99.99 per cent sure” Xsil would not be struck off and the accounts would be filed shortly.
At its peak, Xsil employed over 150 staff. It won the Deloitte Fast 50 Award in 2006 for being the fastest-growing Irish technology firm in the previous five years.
Mr Conlon and one of his co-directors at Xsil, Anna Kupka, have established a web-based company Ammado, described as the “Facebook for charities”.
