The Irish Congress of Trade Unions and SIPTU have offered their services to the 900 Gateway employees facing redundancy. The plant is not unionised and the company plans to negotiate a redundancy package with an eight-strong in-house employee representative council, elected by secret ballot last week.
Under EU regulations, Gateway is obliged to negotiate with staff representatives, but not necessarily trade unions. The only compensation due is statutory redundancy of half a week's pay per year of service for each employee under 41 years, and a full week for those over 41.
Last April, when 200 staff were let go, they received five weeks' pay per year of service, including statutory entitlements.
A Gateway spokeswoman said yesterday that managers would continue to deal directly with employees, as well as facilitating the representative council.
"There is no indication yet of how much extra will be given but the priority is to develop a comprehensive redundancy package," she said.
Information and Communications Technology Ireland, the employers' representative body, said the closure represented "a clear warning that the sector is increasingly open to competition from low-wage economies".
Its director, Mr Brendan Butler, estimated Irish rates were at least two to three times higher than those in eastern Europe and were rising at 10 per cent a year. He said the Gateway announcement was disappointing but should be viewed as "a wake-up call" for the sector.
The ICTU's information officer, Mr Oliver Donohue, said it was important for workers "to get the best deal possible. Obviously not having a union will add to their difficulties and if they want advice or assistance we will help them. But there is no substitute for having an organisation on the ground". He urged other workers in the sector to join unions "before the horse has bolted".
SIPTU provided free administrative back-up and advice to 1,600 Seagate workers when they lost their jobs in Clonmel four years ago and yesterday, its regional secretary, Mr Jack Nash, said the offer of help for Gateway workers would be on the same basis.
"This is not about us fighting for union recognition but trying to help workers and a community in crisis," he said.
Like Seagate, Gateway has avoided recognising unions. After the Seagate closure in 1997, SIPTU's then president, Mr Jimmy Somers, called on the Government to stop IDA funds to foreign companies which refused to recognise unions. The issue was taken up by the High-Level Group on Trade Union Recognition appointed by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, but the consensus reached was that such a move would frighten away potential US investors.
While unions like SIPTU can gain some kudos from offering assistance to workers in these situations, it does not address the fundamental problem of breaking into the sector. Mr Nash said SIPTU had made several attempts to organise at Gateway, usually through members who had moved there from unionised employment. "But the company was very opposed to trade unions," he said.
The Communications Workers' Union also contemplated organising in Gateway. The CWU's national organiser, Mr Chris Hudson, recalled attending an EU conference on improving training and working conditions for call centre workers, which was hosted by Gateway in its Clonshaugh plant. "I asked about recruiting members then and management told me, `You can look, but you can't touch'. "
No one has contacted Mr Hudson since the closure. "Any loss of jobs is tragic but closures like this show the vulnerability of workers in multinational companies."