Baxter Healthcare will temporarily lay off 150 full-time workers from its Castlebar plant for a four month period, it emerged this week. The US pharmaceutical company, which is the major employer in the county town and employes more than 1,000 people in its plants in Castlebar and Swinford, let 200 workers go at the end of last year due to the downturn in the economy.
The reason for the temporary laying off of the 150 full-time workers is because the company will have to close and completely reconstruct a production line at the plant, where it found endotoxins in peritoneal dialysis solutions that are made at the plant and used to treat kidney failure. It is expected that it will take four months for the company to dismantle and reconstruct the production line.
SIPTU organiser John McCarrick was involved in negotiations with the company over the terms of a package offered to the 150 staff. “We first became aware there was a serious problem on Tuesday and we sought an immediate meeting with the company,” he said. “We met with them and the staff from 9am on Wednesday morning and that went on to until 3am on Thursday morning. We were able to reach an agreement with the staff and the company on a good package that was accepted by all. They are a good employer and it was a good deal. We expect that everything will be back to normal in four months’ time.”
However Mr McCarrick told the Mayo Advertiser that the news is not as good for those who work in the plant on short-term weekend work contracts. “I’m a bit concerned that there is a group of workers who work short-term shift contracts for weekend work. They will not be involved in the temporary lay off and will be let go. I haven’t met with any of those staff yet, I will be looking to meet with them. It would be between 20 or 30 staff affected on those contracts.”
The problem first arose in late 2010 and the company notified the European Medicines Agency of the issue. At the time the company thought that the problem emanated from two tanks in the plant; the company cleaned the tanks and the pipework involved in the production. However despite this cleaning work the company found endotoxins in new batches of solutions produced at the plant and the decision was made to reconstruct the whole production line.
The European Medicines Agency was not able to take the affected products off the market as no alternatives were available, but Baxter hoped to be able to source the products from different manufacturing plants in the US, Canada, Singapore, and Turkey. The Irish Medicines Board contacted the 10 dialysis units in the country who use the product to alert the healthcare professionals to look for possible effects of the contamination from the product.
Baxter has not released any statement in relation to the contamination or the staff lay offs.
