Talks aimed at bringing a just resolution to the Vita Cortex dispute will resume at the Labour Relations Commission on Friday 20th January.

On Tuesday the workers' SIPTU representatives and Vita Cortex management attended an initial LRC meeting at the Carrigaline Court Hotel, Cork.

The SIPTU delegation included Manufacturing Division Organiser, Gerry McCormack, Organiser Anne Egar and worker Amy Collins as well as shop stewards Cal O'Leary and Sean Kelleher.

Vita Cortex management were represented by two senior executives but the company's owner, Jack Ronan, failed to attend the meeting.

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The management and worker delegations remained in separate meeting rooms for the duration of the seven hour talks.

Following the talks Anne Egar said: "Once a process of conciliation and mediation commences it always gives rise to a hopeful situation. There is always hope that once the parties engage then a solution can be found."

She added that over the following 48 hours the workers maintaining a sit-in at the Vita Cortex plant on the Kinsale Road, Cork, would be fully briefed on the talks. The LRC is also maintaining contacts with both sides in the dispute in preparation for Friday’s meeting.

Thirty-two workers are entering their fifth week occupying the Vita Cortex plant after the company management closed the facility on 16th December and claimed that it could not afford the cost of redundancy payments.

The Vita Cortex workers are seeking payment of an agreed redundancy package of 2.9 weeks per year of service. The full amount needed to fund the redundancies is just over €1.2 million and because the plant’s closure predates the last budget the State will pay a minimum of 60% of that amount.

(CD/GK)