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SR Technics should fund pension deficit

SR Technics - Due to close in August
SR Technics - Due to close in August

The Labour Court has recommended that SR Technics should fund deficits in its pension funds expected to total over €26m.

The aircraft maintenance firm is due to close by August with the loss of 1,135 jobs.

It has also recommended that the company should double the funding available for its redundancy package from €15m to €30m.

However, the court also said that the company was not obliged to retain staff for whom there is no work.

SR Technics said that from Friday it will have no work for 600 of its 1,135 employees. It wants them to leave on that day instead of working out their notice.

The recommendation is likely to be welcomed by unions at the company.

They had voiced anger about the pension fund deficit and the redundancy package, which they saw as inadequate.

However, the key question now is whether SR Technics, which has not yet commented on the recommendation, will be prepared to implement it.

The management yesterday told the Labour Court that it could not afford to increase the redundancy package or to fund the pension shortfall.

They said the financial status of the Irish operation was extremely weak.

Furthermore, they warned that without the goodwill of the SRT group, the wind down would require liquidation, which would result in only minimum statutory redundancy payments for staff.