Glen Dimplex factory workers in Dunleer, Co Louth have voted to accept a voluntary redundancy package after months of fraught negotiations between the firm and trade union Siptu.
The company is understood to be seeking around 60 voluntary redundancies at its two sites in Dunleer, where it has more than 100 staff. In February, the company said it plans to move production of its gas and electrical fire products from the site to a partner business in China as it consolidates the two facilities into one with an investment of €15 million.
Slightly more than 60 per cent of the 108 workers balloted in Dunleer voted last week to accept a revised redundancy offer negotiated between the company and Siptu. Under the terms of the agreement, workers made voluntarily redundant will be paid the statutory rate of two weeks pay per year of service, capped at €600 per week, plus an enhancement of two weeks pay per year of service, also capped at €600 per week. The total payment is capped at the equivalent of one year and six months of salary.
Summer Economic Statement: Are the days of prudence well over?
Long-term employees with more than 25 years of service will receive an additional lump sum payment of €7,500. The agreement also provides for an “orderly transition of business” bonus, a lump-sum payment of €1,000 to be paid at the end of March 2025 or upon termination.
The Naughton family-owned electrical goods company, which reported an almost threefold rise in pretax profits at its main Irish arm in 2023 to €120.9 million, announced an overhaul of its operations on the island of Ireland in February. Apart from the changes at Dunleer, it includes plans to close a manufacturing facility in Portadown, Co Armagh, and another site in Cloghran near Dublin Airport with the loss of about 300 jobs over the next two years.
“We welcome progress that will facilitate substantial investment by Glen Dimplex on the island of Ireland where we expect to increase headcount by 20 per cent to over 1,000 staff within five years,” a company spokesman said.
Glen Dimplex told employees that a selection process will take place to identify “pools of employees relevant to the roles” in a new organisational structure that has been approved. “A competency-based approach will be used in the making of the initial selections,” said the company in a letter to staff, seen by The Irish Times.
The company said: “In the event of a mismatch of personnel numbers between those to be retained and those at risk of being made redundancy, we will consider on a case-by-case basis with the objective of reaching a mutually agreed outcome.”
The agreement comes after months-long talks between Siptu and Glen Dimplex at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). The two sides appeared at the WRC three times, with an initial offer from the company described at the time by Labour Party TD for Louth Ged Nash as “derisory”.
In May, Mr Nash accused Glen Dimplex of “paying nothing but lip service to the industrial relations machinery of the State”. He said the offer on the table at the time fell “far short of previous packages negotiated in prior redundancy programmes”, and said Glen Dimplex’s initial statement in February had been crafted to “draw the eye” to its future plans for the Dunleer site and away from the impact on workers and the local community.
Separately, workers represented by trade union Unite at the company’s site in Portadown are being balloted for industrial action over the proposed closure of the heating and ventilation manufacturing facility. The vote, which began on Monday, will run until August 8th and could lead to a strike at the factory before the end of the summer, said the union recently.
