The Japanese electronics giant NEC will be asked at a meeting in London today to reverse its decision to close its plant in Ballivor, Co Meath, with the loss of 350 jobs.
London-based senior executives of the company agreed yesterday to meet a delegation from Siptu, which represents workers at the plant.
Siptu Meath branch organiser John Regan said the union would be seeking "the exact reasons" for the group's decision to close the factory in Ballivor. "We are anxious to explore every possibility in order to avoid a complete closure of the plant as it will have very serious consequences for the workers, their families and the local community," he said.
Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin met Meath county manager Tom Dowling and county council chairman Brian Fitzgerald last night, to discuss the implications of the company's decision. Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey, who is from Ballivor, also attended the meeting.
NEC told staff on Tuesday that the semiconductors plant would close in September as part of a group consolidation exercise.
Work currently done at the plant, which has been in operation for 30 years, is to transfer to Singapore, Malaysia and China, where labour costs are a fraction of those in Ireland.
Mr Martin told The Irish Times yesterday that despite the loss of NEC, its second-biggest employer, the economic prospects for Co Meath remained good.
The county's proximity to Dublin, which was growing outwards, meant it was well placed to capitalise on future investment. But he said the first priority was to make sure that workers at the Ballivor plant were given maximum assistance in securing alternative employment.
Fás, the State training and employment agency, had already been mobilised and would be drawing up individual plans for workers to help match them with suitable vacancies, he said.
The planned closure of the factory has led to heightened concerns about the future of the manufacturing sector, which has lost thousands of jobs in recent years to lower-wage economies.
Nevertheless, IDA Ireland said yesterday the sector remained a vibrant contributor to the Irish economy and that talks of its demise were greatly exaggerated.
A spokeswoman for the agency said manufacturing output in IDA-supported companies was now 2½ times greater than was the case in 1995. Employment in manufacturing companies on the IDA's books had increased by 5 per cent over the same period. While labour-intensive enterprises were moving to economies with low wage costs, they were being replaced by cutting-edge, innovative, knowledge-based companies, she said.
She cited as an example of this trend the announcement last month that Amgen, the largest biotechnology company in the world, is to create 1,100 jobs in Cork over the next four years. Opposition politicians, however, said continuing job losses in manufacturing posed a threat to the economy.
Location and wages: Ballivor v Singapore
Workers at NEC's plant in Ballivor earn about four times the rate paid to employees in Singapore for the same work. Work currently being done at the Co Meath factory will be transferred to Singapore, Malaysia and China when the plant closes at the end of September. More than three-quarters of the production at the Meath plant involves the manufacture of semiconductors for the automotive industry. This particular work is being transferred to Singapore, where general operatives with NEC earn about €600 a month. This compares with the average basic pay of €450 a week earned by an operative at the plant in Ballivor. With overtime, operatives at the Co Meath plant earn an average of €614 for a 41.5 hour week. A semiconductor plant worker in China's boomtown of Shenzhen earns around 400 yuan, or the equivalent of €40, for a six-day, 50-hour week.
