Element Six must immeditately honour agreed pension payments

The Socialist Party TD for Dublin West, Joe Higgins, has called on Element Six, which is a subsidiary of the incredibly wealthy mutlinational De Beers to immediately honour the agreed payments into its Defined Benefit Pension Scheme, after it announced that it is winding up this plan.

The Socialist Party TD for Dublin West, Joe Higgins, has called on Element Six, which is a subsidiary of the incredibly wealthy mutlinational De Beers to immediately honour the agreed payments into its Defined Benefit Pension Scheme, after it announced that it is winding up this plan.

In 2009, De Beers/Element Six came to an agreement with the Labour Relations Commission that in return for a reduction in the terms of redundancy offered to laid-off workers, the company would honour its outstanding obligations to the Defined Benefit Scheme up to 2020. The company had since written to employees, deferred and retired members to confirm its commitment to the plan.

Joe Higgins TD on the matter said “It is an outrage that De Beers/Element Six is reneging on its commitment to honour pension contracts. This is a firm that has been in Shannon since 1960
and has made very substantial profits in the process. The complete disregard shown to current and former employees is scandalous. Since the announcement that the scheme was being wound-up, the company has made no attempt to engage with the workers and they have also signalled their intention to not honour the outstanding debt due to the pension scheme. It is simply not acceptable, for De Beers which posted pre-tax profits of $1.2billion for the first six months of 2011, to plead inability to pay.”

“I call on the De Beers company, which in June reported having gross assets totalling €8.2 billion, to immediately honour outstanding and future pension entitlements. If it does not, it is crucial that the workers of Element Six alongise retired employees mount a serious challenge on this company, using industrial action if necessary. I call on SIPTU who are representing these workers to take a stance on the increasing phenomenon of MNCs using the economic crisis internationally to attack wages, working conditions and pension entitlements.”

 

Total
0
Shares
Previous Article

Summit proposals represent enshrining austerity in the EU

Next Article

Don't pay the household charge!

Related Posts
Read More

Solidarity with the Thomas Cook Occupation

Thomas Cook’s decision to add to the jobs slaughter by closing their shops in Ireland is outrageous. This is a company which is projected to make a profit of £400 million worldwide this year, with over €4 million made in Ireland. Yet the management arrived at 10am yesterday morning and expected the workers to be gone in less than an hour.

No Compromises – SCRAP the pension levy

By Denis Keane, CPSU Executive member (personal capacity)

FOLLOWING ON from our demonstration of 4,000 people outside Dail Eireann on the 18 February, CPSU members took part in a one-day strike on 26 February. This protest and one day strike were in reaction to the pay cuts (pension levy) being imposed by the government.

The strike had the overwhelming support of other public servants. Even though they were threatened with disciplinary action, many public servants refused to pass the picket and in some cases joined our picket lines with their home made placards. On the day there was almost universal agreement amongst all grades that our unions needed to take co-ordinated and united action against the pension levy.

Read More

Bus workers’ strike should continue, for the sake of all workers

It really is an extraordinary situation. You have a national public transport company – Bus Eireann. It is in the ownership of the State. It provides a really essential service in linking up our cities, towns and rural villages and delivering thousands of children to schools every day. It ventures into parts of Ireland where no private bus company would go because it is not profitable. But now the Government declares that the company will crash unless it cannibalises €5 million from the wages of its drivers and ancillary staff.