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THE WORKERS AT Bausch and Lomb in Waterford have received a letter from the company today telling them that the redundancies are “the reality of the state of business”.
The company is seeking up to 200 redundancies.
Earlier today CEO of the IDA, Barry O’Leary said that cuts have to be made to ensure that the plant remains open.
TheJournal.ie has seen a letter sent to Bausch and Lomb staff signed by the companies vice president Angelo Conti.
The letter stated, “I know that for all of you who work with us this is difficult news.
But, as I said at the outset, this is not a reflection on your lack of commitment to Waterford’s success. It is the reality of the state of business.
“We believe with your cooperation we can achieve the goal of reducing costs, putting us in a position to reinvest in the business and in the Waterford site.
“If this leads to improved efficiencies and profitability, we will share this with employees in the future.
However, if we can’t get this cooperation we will begin to implement a plan that has already been developed to close the facility.
“So we have a short period during which we will find out whether the alternative to closure is a realistic option.
As I said last Thursday, I know this seems very blunt and direct but we want to tell you directly what the situation is.
“We hope this short discussion process will be successful and we will keep you posted”.
Bausch and Lomb is currently the largest employer in Waterford, with just over 1,100 staff.
SIPTU has said that it is asking for a meeting with the company over the job cuts and threats of a 20 per cent pay cut to the salaries of remaining staff.
It is understood that there will be a meeting between management, staff and union representatives on Tuesday.
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Every intention to leave Ireland ASAP by the look of things.
This is why we need to put more time, effort and support into creating homegrown companies and keep them Irish owned . Foreign investment and jobs are very welcome however once the tax breaks and incentives have been exhausted and another country can offer cheaper labour , lower tax it’s too easy to just walk away .
I’m a bit confused, by “Irish companies” do you mean Irish owned? As though for some reason Irish people are incapable of taking advantage of opportunities abroad?
With all due respect, what we need to do is keep Ireland competitive and attractive, not culture xenophobic insular attitudes.
Jaysus Jim, overreact much? Just read his comment for what it says not for what you interpret or insert yourself…
Only seen this now and you completely mis read the comment . We need to encourage companies that will start in Ireland ( and great if they expand) and use Ireland as their main place of business . A company with such connections is far more likely to stay in this country thus providing long term employment and stability for its employees as opposed to a large multi national that looks at a balance sheet and goes to whatever country that currently suits them at the drop of a hat.
A good company would offer a bonus for more productivity not cut wages and then ask for more efficiency. Backwards.
What are you on about?
They have to cut wages in order to remain competitive. It’s not complicated.
It’s not about being a “good company”.
It’s there to make a profit like any other company and if circumstances force them to cut wages then so be it. It’s better than just closing down.
Sorry but you will not get more value work from your workers by giving them less money. Only a rise or bonus will achieve more productivity.
Less money, lay offs, threats = remaining underpaid workers harder for fear of losing what little they still have
But hey! Who cares. Nobody is going to do anything about it.
David,
Keeping them working with less pay is better than the company running up debts and eventually closing down.
There is no logic or business knowledge in your argument.
Premium, did your argument work for Waterford Crystal?
With all the taxes and cuts of the last 6 years I would say many of the workers would be off on the dole than taking a 20% cut in wages. No way will the staff work harder in those conditions.
It seems corporate bullshit is alive and well in Waterford.
The owners made a profit of 124 million dollars Oct.-Dec. ’13. mostly thanks to B&L. Bullshít.
*better* off on the dole.
Btw do you know it is no longer a nice private family owned company anymore. It is owned by Valeant Pharma one of the biggest in the world and if the workers accept the pay cut they are suckers to the money system. Globalisation is destroying the company in the search for bigger and bigger profits for the ones that already have it all. F off.
Bonus v salary, variable cost v fixed cost. If a company is losing money or not generating an acceptable ROI fixed costs have to be reduced or productivity increased.
Kieran and everybody.
This company is NOT losing money.
Read their own words “to improve profitability”. In fact, Valeant Pharma only made a profit last year directly because they bought B&L which is a profitable company. Valeant made a loss for the 3 months before taking over B&L and a 126 million profit the next 3 months which they attribute to taking over B&L.
Ye but the Waterford facility itself is losing money!
Conor, will I just take your word for it? Nothing in the article says that. Do you have a link? If not…….
Hi David
I said loosing money or not making an acceptable ROI.
If you retired and your pension fund is worthless because they invested in company who were not driven by the bottom line, would you be happy.
Or to put it a different way, I set up a fund and I promise my 1st objective is staff remuneration not your pension. Would you invest??
Kieran,
I would invest in the people, always have and always will.
Sir, if you want to invest in shares for your pension go ahead, I personally do not care of others gambles.
A huge corporation bought this company for profits and now they have the profit they want more more more at the expense of the people.
I care zero for their bloody share holders. I spit on them for what they are.
Dave if you have a pension fund, you have invested in shares I am not been smart but to make the point, do you think that all the pension contributions made my 100,000′s of people is kept in shoe boxes in the head office of a hedge fund?
No its all invested and a good percentage of your fund is in equinity’s
We are not talking about rich people here, just normal people who work pay there tax contribute into a pension fund and expect when they retire that the fund will be able to give them some level of income in there old age.
Not so. This is merely it’s new owners Valeant making a slash and burn to cover the cost of acquisition. The profits of the parent Valeant have hugely increased since the acquisition of Bausch and Lomb.
Kieran, I just feel you are patronising me about pensions.
There are brokers everywhere that will steer you to a pension fund that will only invest in companies that only follow good practice. There are thousands of them and I am guessing that they are not queing to invest in Valeant Phara.
People before profit.
John B. Well said.
B&L ran a family style business.
Valeant Pharma prefer the sweatshop mode.
A blind man could have seen this coming when they bought it.
Dave, try selling a fund called people before profit, don’t hold your breath. Nobody is forcing people to work for wages they are not happy with. You don’t have that option with your pension. I take pension very seriously and take offence at your comment, that is not patronising, its worrying about my income after I am 65
Kieran, if you keep worrying so much you may not reach your retirement.
Putting thoughts about the share price of monster companies like Valeant at the expence of 1200 jobs because of your pension, well, it can’t be good for you.
You my friend are on another planet. That is not how it works I’d would agree with you if it were but company or most of them anyway have found a way to cut wages take all they can from the worker and then go anyway
I don’t know folks, I hate to see people bullied into a corner,
They want to leave. Simple as. The greedy corporate wheel keeps turning. Probably going to set up in India and pay €0.50 per hour
why exactly would anyone be surprised by that? a multinational company who realise they can do it cheaper elsewhere. some of the comments on this are naive in the extreme. these places are business entitities! they want to maximise profits, it’s very very simple.
Naive? Is it naive to think they treat people like dirt and de-humanise the work environment? Get the blinkers off and take a look at whats going on nationwide. Companies don’t owe people anything other than to pay their wage but its disgraceful to bully and harass people into accepting a 20% pay cut! Nothing is that simple, always another side to the story.
i agree, companies are not nice! but they are an entity which needs to make money . i’m just surprised when people feel they are owed, by multinational companies especially. talk of “loyalty” is just ridiculous.
i feel bad for people who’ve lost their jobs, hopefully some other company will step in as a big new employer.
This is gonna turn into Waterford Crystal part 2. Somehow I can’t see all 900 remaining staff agreeing to 20% cut.
Which is better: 80% of your existing wage, or a social welfare payment?
A case of never waste a good crisis
Talk about putting a bullet to people’s heads. SIPTU should now concentrate on putting conditions in place that concentrate on the upside that B&L talk about. Get them to put their money where their mouth is.
Ok, so the employees go with 200 redundancies and the remaining take somewhere in the region of 20% pay cut. Then in 6 months time the company still closes with fewer people to pay redundancy and at a much lower rate. Thats the plan.
The future looks grim for these workers. B&L look like they have had it with high costs in Waterford. The profit imperative is the driver here, not the people. Sounds a big like DELL all over again. These are jobs producing commodity products. They will naturally go to the lowest cost country. I think it’s curtains. Given the availability of a relatively cheap workforce, a nice facility and a good lifestyle location I think it will only be a short time before a higher-value creating firm moves in. This is change, nothing else.
If price at which a firm sells its products in global marketplace experiences continuing downward pressure due to technological advances, stiffer competition, and market changes, something’s gotta give.
Unfortunately, it’s usually wage rates and jobs, as here now with B&L in Waterford.
Harsh realities of life for companies producing low margin commodities, I suppose.
Irish Plant’s labour rates are apparently 30% greater than those of New York’s, which seems quite incredible, as far from top-notch terms here.
Back to days of slave labour in US, it seems. Where will it all end?
It looks like we’re all going to have to become IT guru’s of some sort or other to survive into the future.
They can outsource those to India
Time for the government to step in here but they are too gutless, as for SIPTU well! They sold out healthcare workers so they will be just as useless in Waterford.
And do what exactly?
I know right, all of these aimless calls for the government to”step in”.
What do you mean by this?
You’d swear everyone commenting here has a serious qualification in economics or something.
Very few people on this site have a qualification in anything from what I can see. Same oul shcite from the same oul bullschiters. If they ever got power they’d probably start crying after ten minutes.
Looks like it’s the governments time to act. And I do mean government who can do something as opposed to unions who will give the company the excuse to close by threatening strike action.
Some commentators here describing B & L as formerly a family run company. It never was. It’s previous owner was a private equity concern who incidentally shed over 300 jobs in the Waterford site and thousands worldwide during it’s 7 yr ownership.
if this is accepted then a precedent is set for other multi nationals, baush and lomb close the door when you leave,we will survive
Just how short is their ‘short discussion period’? They want to lay 200 people off, for Christ’s sake! Disgraceful. In Finland redundancy negotiations have to be at least 14 days long for 9 redundancies or fewer (yes, nine), and six weeks long if ten or more lay-offs are sought. What’s the law in Ireland?
Has anyone asked how much the IDA are getting to stay (for a while anyway)
Sorry that should be giving
How about leaving the wages of hard working people alone and trying to reduce the high esb , water & rates charges that companies hqve to pay.the government could help there to keep pay rates
It hurts to take any kind of cut, but isn’t that better than no job and the prospect of not finding a job in a city with an already national low on the employment front ?
Valeant Canada bought B&L only twelve months ago. They must have done due diligence before they bought it. They must have known when they bought it that redundancies were going to happen and pay cuts would be sought. Does our own Dept of Enterprise not do its own due diligence to stop this kind of shit from happening? Who is looking after the workers in this country?
So what.. Our government was supposed to stop the takeover of a foreign company by another foreign company? Jesus wept.
A nice way to treat their staff –a threat –.I am afraid that B+L will close anyway and in the meantime asking the remaining staff to work for 20% less ,when every thing in this lovely country is rising and new charges /levies coming at us ,you can only stretch a pay packet so far ,its NOT LIKE THE MIRACLE of the five loaves and two fish..
THANKS YANKS AND–SQUEEZE US MORE.
IMO. They need to be judged on their profitability as a Pharma company operating in planet earth first. Then the global average, then US, then china then vs other viable options too. Salaries do NOT tell the full picture. Yes they are inflated in the republic, but their own profitability is inflated too due to lower taxes etc! I am not one for unions and lads that work lifetime for the same company, etc, but I do think that a malpractice and a precedent could be implied here… Let’s just get rid of 200 staff and drop everyone else left behind’s salary by 20%… Where will we be in 5 years time? Transitioned from Ireland’s most educated and experienced workforce To: companies who invest in Ireland’s most recent graduates….
Seem to recall were they bought by a company last year ? If so i would imagine it is not that the company is not making money its just they want more
have your say