'Reasonable number' of Quinn workers look to go

A "reasonable number" of employees at Quinn Insurance's Navan office have expressed an interest in the redundancy package but the level of uptake will not be known until later in the week. As part of the administrators' restructuring of the company, 109 of the 196 employees at Quinn's Navan office are facing redundancy. Some 37 staff are to be let go in the first phase. The closing date to express an interest in the redundancy scheme passed on Monday. Chairperson of the employee representative committee, Kevin Walsh, said there has been "reasonable interest" in the redundancy package being offered but that they would not know the figures until the end of the week. He said there is "almost of a sense of relief that the date had passed" as it had been looming and a lot of people put a lot of thought into what they wanted to do. Mr Walsh added that staff are now "anxiously waiting" to find out who is going and who is not. The month-long consultation period between the employee representative committee and management concludes on 3rd June, which includes discussions on the criteria for the compulsary redundancy scheme, communication and issues employees wanted raised with management on their behalf. Mr Walsh and the chairpersons of the other employee representative committees from Cavan, Blanchardstown, Enniskillen and Manchester met with Dan Flinter, the chairman of the Integrated Task Force established following the announcement of 900 redundancies across Quinn Insurance, on Monday. Mr Walsh said it was quite a good meeting and that Mr Flinter had visited the Navan offices yesterday (Tuesday) morning. He said that representatives from Social Welfare, Enterprise Ireland and Fás were on-site last week and will be available again next week as people start to get their exit dates to help them with their entitlements from the Department of Social Protection and what is available with Fás to help them put a plan together for the future. Quinn Insurance was permitted to resume selling motor insurance in the UK some weeks ago and a business plan regarding reopening part of the commerical business has also been put to the financial regulator with a decision due on this in the coming week. Meanwhile, Senator Dominic Hannigan is urging the Government to claim EU compensation for the 900 Quinn workers facing redundancy. The Meath senator said, for the 109 Quinn employees in Navan due to lose their jobs, the EU's globalisation fund could be used to help them and other Quinn employees re-train, find new jobs or become self-employed.