This article is from page 12 of the 2009-07-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
SOURCES at Element Six have thrown doubt on the company’s ex- planation for why it is shedding the jobs in manufacturing.
The company announced last week that it is to close its manufacturing and distribution activities in Shan- non while retaining positions in high Skill areas such as R&D, Global Cus- tomer Services and Group support.
In a statement, the company said that the “decision is the result of a comprehensive strategic review of
Element Six’ global manufacturing operations to improve cost competi- tiveness and secure the group’s long- term future. The Shannon operation is the highest cost manufacturing site in the Element Six Group.
“Despite a series of cost reduction programmes in the past few years, continued production at the Shannon site is no longer sustainable or viable, and the primary business it serves is loss-making. The current economic downturn has simply served to exac- erbate these challenges.”
But sources at the company argue
that there will be no savings in real terms for the company by moving manufacturing to South Africa.
“There are skilled workers here who can turn out better and more work per hour than can ever be ex- pected if the company moves to South Africa, where workers don’t have the skill and experience of the Shannon workers.
“How can there be savings if they are getting less productivity and poorer quality?” one source asked,,.
He added that while workers who were on short time have now been
brought back on to the payroll full- time pending the talks between man- agement and unions on Wednesday, “we have been on half time and half wages for a long time now.
“There’s €10 million worth of business on our books at the moment and, even with that business, we had people on short time. We had way less than that in the past and we were still working full-time.
“We even had a bonus scheme up to March of last year. People do not accept that this is a means of saving money for the company.”