Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin has been asked to intervene in a row that has led to a picket being placed outside a Cork meat factory for the last month.
McSweeney Bacon Curers on Watercourse Road on the northside of Cork city ceased trading on July 14th due to a downturn in business. The plant had traded for 25 years and employed 25 people.
Workers say the company is refusing to negotiate a redundancy package, which means they will receive only statutory entitlements through social insurance.
The factory has been sold to a development company in Cork for a multi-million euro retail and residential development in Blackpool.
One former worker at McSweeney's, Roy O'Donovan, has appealed to Mr Martin to help settle the dispute over redundancy packages. "We are writing to the Minister and asking him to explain why the workers aren't getting a cent from the sale."
A spokesman for McSweeney Bacon Curers was not available for comment yesterday.