Tara Mines workers accept management's layoff support measures
Tara Mines workers protest over its temporary closure outside Leinster House on Wednesday. Picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins
Tara Mines workers have voted to accept management proposals to support them while they are laid off.
According to Siptu divisional organiser Adrian Kane, unions had recommended the proposals, which were brokered at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) last week, be accepted.
Sipti, Connect and Unite trade unions secured the proposals after more than 40 hours of what they later described as “intensive negotiations” at the WRC.
The agreed deal means the company will provide enhanced support for workers laid off during a temporary closure of Tara Mines in Navan, Co Meath, which is scheduled to commence on Friday.
The deal that was recommended will provide modest retainer allowances for workers who are being laid off.
There is also an increase in the number of people who will be retained for care and maintenance of the mine during its period of closure.
The proposals include a guarantee workers will return on the same terms and conditions of employment as they had secured when the mine ceases operation.
Negotiations over the decision by Boliden Tara Mines initially started after the company announced on June 13 it would temporarily suspend operations and place the mine into what is known as a “care and maintenance” arrangement.
About 650 workers will be temporarily laid off by management at Tara Mines, which opened in 1977 and which produces more than two million tonnes of zinc per year.
Those jobs are on top of about 200 private contractors, most of whom are understood to have already been let go.
The decision shocked unions and workers as just two years ago, a Boliden summary report of Tara Mines resources and reserves had stated mineral reserves at the mines represented “an equivalent amount for seven years of full production”.
But inflation coupled with energy costs, which are understood to include a €3m-a-week electricity bill, have impacted on the decision to temporarily shut the plant down.
