SIPTU has categorically dismissed a claim by the management of Lagan Brick that it offered redundancy payments which equated to around two years net pay to most of the 25 workers involved in the dispute at the company's Kingscourt Brick manufacturing plant, Co. Cavan.

SIPTU Organiser, John Regan, said: "In a statement released by the management of Lagan Brick a number of claims are made which are wholly inaccurate. The company states that on the 14th February it wrote to its former employees outlining proposed redundancy payments which ‘in most cases equated to around two years net pay.

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"This is not accurate and if the company had tabled a proposal to pay two years salary, as they claim, to the workers during the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) conciliation conferences held to discuss this dispute it might not still be dragging on."

John Regan also welcomed the solidarity shown to the Lagan Brick workers at the Annual General Meeting of the SIPTU Construction Sector in Liberty Hall.

Workers at the Kingscourt Plant were informed it was closing only hours before it ceased operation on 15th December. The company refused to honour established redundancy terms for the 25 SIPTU members made redundant.

On 6th February SIPTU stated that it would be seeking the intervention of the Labour Court in the Lagan Brick dispute following the break down of talks at the Labour Relations Commission.

On 29th February the employers representative organisation, IBEC, confirmed that Lagan Brick had refused to attend the Labour Court.

In a ballot conducted on 1st March, SIPTU members in Lagan Brick voted almost unanimously to take strike action in response to the company's decision to ignore standard industrial dispute resolution procedures.

(CD)