ABBOTT EMPLOYEES HOPE THERE WILL BE NO FURTHER LAY-OFFS

By MICHAEL McDONNELL
michael@northern-standard.ie

EMPLOYEES at the Abbott Ireland plant in Cootehill are hopeful that the 20 redundancies announced by the company this week — as part of an assessment of its worldwide network — will not be followed up with future staff reductions.

The baby food formula processing plant on the Monaghan road outside Cootehill employs about 250 people at present and is viewed as a vital mainstay to the economy of the town.

The 20 voluntary lay-offs being sought over the next three months are included in 78 redundancies announced by Abbott this week, with the other 58 jobs (29 each) to be shed at its diagnostic operations in Longford and Sligo.

In February of last year Abbott announced 200 voluntary redundancies at its vascular manufacturing plant in Clonmel, while in October 2012 a total of 180 redundancies, also voluntary, were sought in Sligo.
While these staff reductions had caused some concern in Cootehill, the facility had up until now escaped any of these “streamlining” measures.

A worker at the extensive manufacturing premises yesterday confirmed that staff had been informed of the proposal on Tuesday evening. The general feeling among employees is that out of the 250 staff it is very possible that 20 voluntary redundancies will be achieved, given that the package might be attractive to some of those with long years of service.

But it is also understood that if the …