Quinn staff get extra week to decide on redundancy

Workers at Quinn Insurance have been given an extra week to decide whether to apply for voluntary redundancy following the announcement that the administrators plan to axe 900 jobs across the company. Quinn's Navan offices, which currently employs 196 employees, was proportionately the hardest hit with 109 staff to be let go over the next 12 months. This will leave just 87 staff in a building constructed to accommodate 750. There was huge shock among staff at the scale of the redundancies in Navan and workers now have until 24th May to register their interest in voluntary redundancy. If there is insufficient interest, redundancies will move to compulsary. Kevin Walsh, who is an employee representative, said staff have been meeting twice a week to get information and facts. "We are gathering the relevant information so people can make a decision on whether it is the right thing for them or if they should sit out and wait to go into the lottery and see if they are pulled out." He said it was hard to tell how many people would go for the voluntary redundancy as they are only getting the information they need to make a decision but said there was not a huge amount of interest that he was aware of, though staff members may have spoken to their individual managers about it. In the past week, representatives from ther Dept of Social Welfare, the County Enterprise Board, Fás and tax consultants have been on-site in Navan to meet with staff and answer their queries. Mr Walsh said, in the meantime, staff are still doing their day job. "People are doing a great job and are very focused in difficult circumstances," he said. After 24th May deadline, those who apply for voluntary redundancy will find out within five days if they have been accepted. A selection criteria will then be agreed to proceed with compulsary redundancies if sufficient voluntary redundancies are not achieved. Meanwhile, on Wednesday of last week, Oirechtas members from Meath met with the Financial Regulator when concern over the potential loss of Meath 600 jobs was discussed. Mary Wallace, TD, who attended the meeting, said the Regulator explained that the UK business lost €44 million last year and it was necessary to implement measures to prevent the firm suffering further losses. "The urgency of reopening the UK insurance aspect of the business was discussed as this is particularly key to the jobs of people living in Meath. The Financial Regulator explained he received the initial plan on 8th April but there was not sufficient analysis regarding pricing contained in that plan. He went on to explain that, on 15th April, he received additional information regarding the motor insurance aspect and he was in a position to remove the ban in relation to insuring provisional licence holders on 22nd April. The analysis was not sufficient in relation to full licenced motorists. Quinn Insurance did not have an in-house actuary and an actuary was brought in by the administrator. The analysis regarding fully licenced motor insurance was received last Thursday and the ban was immediately lifted in relation to the private motor insurance," said Deputy Wallace. Meanwhile, Meath East Senator Dominic Hannigan has welcomed the appointment of Dan Flinter who will head the team to help Quinn employees get back into employment. "A quick response is crucial to this situation and the appointment of Dan Flinter is a sign that the needs of the workers of the north-east are being taken seriously. Dan Flinter ran the national agency of job creation, Enterprise Ireland, from 1997 to 2003 and he has the national experience that will help the workers of the north-east. The workers in the region need to know that they are going to be supported when they need help to retrain and get back into the employment market," he said.