Result of Tara Mines worker ballot on temporary closure supports due by noon
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The result of a ballot of Tara Mines workers on management proposals to support them while they are laid off will be known by noon today.
Unions have recommended the proposals, brokered at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), be accepted.
SIPTU, Connect, and Unite trade unions secured the proposals last Saturday after more than 40 hours of negotiations at the WRC.
If agreed to, they will provide enhanced support for workers laid off during a temporary closure of Tara Mines in Navan, county Meath which is scheduled to commence tomorrow.
The deal being recommended to members by all the unions provides what has been described as a “modest” retainer allowance 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 that 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.
Around 650 workers will be temporarily laid off by management at the Mines, which opened in 1977 and which produces more than 2m tonnes per year.
Those jobs are on top of around 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 that 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 per week electricity bill, have impacted on the decision to temporarily shut the plant down.
The company has stated it is “currently cash flow negative, due to a combination of factors including operational challenges, a decline in the price of zinc, high energy prices, and general cost inflation”.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the Government will explore ways to help reduce Boliden's energy costs burden and said it want "to explore all options to secure the long term future of the mine and employment".
In their initial rejection of union proposals before matters went to the WRC, Boliden Tara Mines said they did not sufficiently address, in the short term, "the significant and unsustainable losses that the business is currently experiencing".