Labour Court to rule on Beru dispute
Workers angry with terms of redundancy offer
THE Labour Court is expected to rule on the dispute between staff and management at Tralee's Beru Electronics withing days.
The dispute at the Tralee company centres on redundancy terms that have been offered to workers who are due to be laid off following the closure of the plant's main production line.
A Labour Court hearing took place in Dublin on Friday and the discussion centered on the terms being offered to 85 workers.
Beru has offered the workers five weeks redundancy per year of service; this includes includes the workers' statutory entitlement of two weeks per year of service.
Siptu, the union which represents the majority of workers at the plant, is unhappy with these terms and is also taking issue with the method by which workers were selected for redundancy.
General manager of Beru Paddy Lange told the Labour Court that the criteria used were based on the need for skill retention and to safeguard the remaining 115 jobs at the plant.
Last September workers were called to a meeting with management at the factory in Tralee's Monavalley Industrial Estate when they were told that 90 jobs were to be shed at the plant.
The news followed and announcement by Beru's German parent company Beru AG that it was transferring productions of glowplugs, which accounts for 80 per cent of production in the Tralee plant, from Kerry to a facility in Ludwigsburg, Germany.
A new high temperature sensor line, promised to Tralee, was also to be transferred to Germany.
Beru electronics, which manufactures automotive parts, hase been located in Tralee since 1985 and currently employs 202 people.
- SIMON BROUDER sbrouder@kerryman.ie
