Dairygold, the north Cork agricompany which is seeking 500 redundancies before Christmas, has extended its deadline for those seeking voluntary redundancies until today.
The company had been insisting that any of its staff seeking voluntary redundancy had to indicate an interest in the voluntary package by 5 p.m. on Monday.
However, as a result of conciliation talks at a Labour Relations Commission hearing in Mallow on Monday, the company moved the final day for indications of interest to 5 p.m. today.
SIPTU, the union representing the majority of the 3,200 workers at the company's plants in north Cork, had sought the hearing on the basis that it would oppose forced redundancies at the company, which is facing severe losses unless staff levels are trimmed.
The company had said that Dairygold staff not opting for the voluntary scheme would face forced redundancy by December 17th.
A spokesman for SIPTU said last night that agreement had been reached at the Labour Relations Commission that talks would resume tomorrow at the joint negotiating forum, an in-house negotiating body, on any issues arising under the severance programme.
Both sides committed themselves to dealing at the forum with all the outstanding issues associated with the severance programmes and to finalise such issues by December 17th. Mr Joe Cunningham of SIPTU said negotiations were now back on track and he hoped progress would be made tomorrow.
Mr Cunningham said: "All we want to ensure is that there are no forced redundancies in the company.
"We recommended the terms of the package but there will be ongoing discussions on its implementation," he said.
Redundancies had been expected at the company, which is the largest employer in north Cork.
However, the speed with which the company moved to shed the 500 jobs had caused concern not only at the Dairygold plant but also in business and political circles in the area.