Management at Vita Cortex in Cork have criticised former employees at the plant for turning down a revised redundancy payments deal.
Staff who worked at the foam manufacturing firm on the Kinsale Road have been occupying their former workplace since mid-December in a dispute over redundancy payments.
The 32 employees are seeking 0.9 weeks’ pay per year of service which, they say, was agreed with the company and given to other employees who left in 2009 and 2010.
The overall worth of the redundancy payments sought are about €370,000 but Vita Cortex owner Jack Ronan has said he does not have the money to pay such a level of redundancy.
In a statement issued by the company today, Vita Cortex said it was "extremely disappointed and surprised" by the rejection to a revised offer it made last week to bring as part of a bid to end the dispute.
The company insisted it had never promised staff 0.9 weeks per year of service and said the fact that it was unable to pay even the statutory redundancy proved that the offer could not have been made.
Vita Cortex urged trade union Siptu to adopt a more realistic position and enter into meaningful negotiations.
"Despite the rejection of the offer made last week, the company is committed to exploring all meaningful efforts to finally resolve the dispute," it said.
"The union and those they represent must realise that in short the directors/ shareholders of any company have no obligation legal or otherwise to pay redundancy from their personal funds. The company has never been in a position to pay redundancy and the offer that was made would have been funded from the directors/shareholders personal resources," it added.
Vita Cortex said it sympathised with the workers plight and was pleased that employees had received their statutory redundancy last month.
Speaking on behalf of the workers, Siptu said the Vita Cortex owners were seeking to leave it up to taxpayers to pick up their tab.
"Rather than seek to get others to pay their bills we call upon the Vita Cortex owners to remember the sizeable profits they have made down the years from the work of their staff and finally meet their obligations and pay what the workers are owed,” said Siptu organiser Anne Egar.
Tánaiste Éamon Gilmore pledged his full support to staff at the plant after meeting a delegation of workers at the weekend. He also expressed confidence that resolution could be found which would allow the staff to receive the same payments as their predecessors who took redundancy.
Other well-known people to have offered support to the Vita Cortex employees include Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, former Republic of Ireland soccer player Paul McGrath, singer Christy Moore and Holly wood actor and native Cork man Cillian Murphy.
