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11 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 17/1998
Workers at a loss-making polypropylene plant in Scotland have been offered a severance package that sets a new high standard for redundancy settlements in Britain and many other countries.
The deal negotiated with chemicals multinational ICI takes account of the dearth of reasonably-paid industrial jobs in the region around the plant. The 200 workers at the ICI plant have been averaging 20,000 UK pounds (about 33,000 US dollars) a year.
So, when ICI closes the facility, employees who move to other, lower-paying jobs will have their wages enhanced by up to 25 per cent over two years by the company. ICI's official early retirement age is 50, but employees aged 48 or over at the plant will receive a full pension if they are made redundant before the age of 50. All workers have received a pledge that nobody will have to leave ICI's employment before the end of the year and that nobody will receive less than 10,000 UK pounds (about 16,500 US dollars) in severance pay.
The loss-making plant at Cargenbridge in Dumfries is the first to experience compulsory redundancies as part of a wide-ranging ICI reorganisation. So the settlement sets an important standard.
A more modern ICI polypropylene plant in the same town has been sold to Belgian-based UCB. About 85 of the workers from the older plant are being transferred to UCB, where their pay, conditions and pensions will be protected.
Negotiating the Cargenbridge package was Fred Higgs, National Officer of Britain's Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). The deal is "uniquely beneficial," said Higgs, who is Vice-President of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). He emphasised that the agreement had been designed to meet particular local needs. However, the union would be looking for similar settlements if ICI made other closures in areas of high unemployment.
Industry observers are now predicting that other companies will come under union pressure to settle at a similar level if they create redundancies in future.
The deal negotiated with chemicals multinational ICI takes account of the dearth of reasonably-paid industrial jobs in the region around the plant. The 200 workers at the ICI plant have been averaging 20,000 UK pounds (about 33,000 US dollars) a year.
So, when ICI closes the facility, employees who move to other, lower-paying jobs will have their wages enhanced by up to 25 per cent over two years by the company. ICI's official early retirement age is 50, but employees aged 48 or over at the plant will receive a full pension if they are made redundant before the age of 50. All workers have received a pledge that nobody will have to leave ICI's employment before the end of the year and that nobody will receive less than 10,000 UK pounds (about 16,500 US dollars) in severance pay.
The loss-making plant at Cargenbridge in Dumfries is the first to experience compulsory redundancies as part of a wide-ranging ICI reorganisation. So the settlement sets an important standard.
A more modern ICI polypropylene plant in the same town has been sold to Belgian-based UCB. About 85 of the workers from the older plant are being transferred to UCB, where their pay, conditions and pensions will be protected.
Negotiating the Cargenbridge package was Fred Higgs, National Officer of Britain's Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). The deal is "uniquely beneficial," said Higgs, who is Vice-President of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). He emphasised that the agreement had been designed to meet particular local needs. However, the union would be looking for similar settlements if ICI made other closures in areas of high unemployment.
Industry observers are now predicting that other companies will come under union pressure to settle at a similar level if they create redundancies in future.