Workers at Calcast’s car parts factory in Londonderry have ended a protest against the reduction of the statutory redundancy notice offered by the French-owned firm.
90 of the 102 workers employed at the factory have been made redundant. The dispute began after the period of notice was reduced from three months to one. The sit-in finished when the factory agreed to improve the redundancy package they offered, although the notice will remain 30 days.
Thomas Fleming, one of Calcast’s employees, said of the dispute: “A lot of it is still ongoing but suffice to say that the membership are happy enough with what has been negotiated.
“We got more or less what we were looking for at the start, and they’re happy that they got what they expected to get. “
On Monday Calcast announced that the factory would be closing down. Philip Oakes from the trade union Unite stated:
“We are still on the 30-day consultation, and I expect some employees may exit before that, but they are happy with what was reached during negotiations.”
The 12 employees who have not been made redundant will be relocated to other firms.
