Some 173 workers at the Co Longford pet food plant severely damaged by fire on Sunday are to retain their jobs, the company announced today.
The announcement was made at a meeting of C&D Foods' 500-strong workforce in Longford town this afternoon.
The workers will resume duties on Monday week, managing director Philip Reynolds said. The future for the remainder of workers is still uncertain after Mr Reynolds revealed it would be at least 16 months before full production could resume.
He said a clearer picture would emerge after discussions with customers over the next two weeks. "Until this process is completed I cannot offer any further hope to my remaining 300 staff," Mr Reynolds said.
The canning section - where most of the employees work - at the Edgesworthstown plant was completely destroyed by fire and management is examining the potential for outsourcing production.
However, the soft-packet foods section will resume part production and another 28 workers may be able to return to work in that section in the future.
"The future for our staff who were employed in the cannery is less certain. It is clear that any reinstatement of our facilities will take a minimum of 16 months," Mr Reynolds said. "We are actively involved in various discussions with the numbers of producers in an effort to ascertain the possibilities for outsourcing production."
Following the meeting, Mr Reynolds said he had brought employees up to speed on the damage done to the plant, and the plans for the next few weeks. He said he would be making a decision on the ultimate future of the factory within a month.
People with longer term service would have the right to apply for the positions available, whereas temporary staff jobs would not be reinstated, he said.
And he accepted redundancy was an issue he would have to address. "A very important part of what we've been doing all week is keeping our customers completely up to speed on what's been happening.
"There's no way we would have been able to make the announcements we were able to make today without our customers agreeing to fairly significant and fairly serious changes to the commercial agreements that existed with us prior to the fire," he said.
Siptu's Longford/Westmeath branch organiser, Seamus McNamee said the outcome was "positive" and that the union would continue to work with management to achieve the return of more workers.