Workers at the Irish Glass Bottle plant in Ringsend will continue picketing the plant when it closes later today with the loss of 380 jobs, in protest at the decision by the Ardagh Group, which owns the company, to reject a Labour Court recommendation on redundancy payments.
The Labour Court’s recommendation of five weeks pay for each year of service, including statutory entitlements, is estimated to cost just under €25 million, while the company's offer - just under two weeks pay for each year of service plus statutory entitlements - would cost about €12 million.
Workers say this [€25million] could be easily offset against the value of the lease for the 25-acre Ringsend site but the company confirmed that it has no plans to sell the site and the only collateral available is the stock at the plant.
The Taoiseach referred the dispute to the National Implementation Body which met informally on Tuesday but did not report any progress, only that it would keep in touch with the parties to the dispute.
Meanwhile as the sit-in protest enters its fifth day workers are to march to Merrion Square tomorrow.
On Wednesday the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Dermot Lacey of the Labour Party, visited the picket line and pledged his support to the workers. Mr Pat Doherty, Sinn Fein MP for West Tyrone, will also be meeting a delegation of the workers and Trade Union shop stewards.
