New blow as toymaker announces 22 job cuts
Wednesday November 25 2009
Waterford suffered another blow yesterday with the news that toymaker Hasbro is to cut 22 jobs in a bid to reduce costs.
The company, which employs almost 250 people, said that it was forced into seeking the redundancies because of the current economic climate and to protect the future of the Waterford plant.
Union officials pointed out that the news comes just three years after a survival plan was agreed between the company and staff which saw almost 160 people being let go.
SIPTU official Ger Malone said that employees were taken by surprise by yesterday's announcement.
"I was talking to some of the shop stewards and they're a bit shocked," she told the Irish Independent. "Hopefully it will all be done on a voluntary basis but if they don't get the volunteers, and they might not in the current climate, there might be a bit of a row."
Ms Malone is meeting with workers this morning to ascertain the mood and discussions are expected to start between the union and the company in the coming days.
Hasbro's head of global manufacturing Pat Gilhooley said that it was "absolutely necessary" for the company to make the job cuts to protect as much of the remaining employment in Waterford as possible.
According to Mr Gilhooley, the redundancies will be voluntary and a "competitive" package will be on offer to staff who "fit the selection criteria".
Meanwhile, hundreds of former Waterford Wedgwood workers are to be retrained from a European and Government fund expected to be worth around €5m.
Reskilling
Industry sources last night confirmed the figure for retraining and reskilling workers from the iconic firm which has to be signed off by the European Commission in the new year.
And the European Parliament is expected to give the green light to over €20m funding for 1,900 former Dell staff later today, after the chip-maker outsourced from Limerick to Lodz in Poland.
The funding for Irish workers comes from the €500m European Globalisation Fund, or back-to-work scheme, which has been made available to member states to provide training and upskilling for laid-off workers.
- Ailish O'Hora and Conor Kane
Irish Independent
