South Belfast MP Dr. Alasdair McDonnell today led a delegation of MPs in Westminster to meet with senior representatives of the Administrators Ernest & Young to discuss the treatment of Nortel workers in the Newtownabbey, Harlow and Maidenhead plants.

On Monday 30 March 2009, 228 employees at Nortel plants in Monkstown in Newtownabbey, Maidenhead and Harlow were called to a meeting and summarily dismissed without notice or redundancy pay.

The redundancy treatment of Nortel staff employed in Northern Ireland has been described by the SDLP’s Alasdair McDonnell as a betrayal of massive proportions.

And the role played by both the company management and the administrators, Ernst and Young, should be the focus of the toughest possible scrutiny according to the SDLP Deputy leader, Dr. Alasdair McDonnell.

Dr. McDonnell has already held private discussions with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown over the Nortel situation and has written to Pat McFadden, Minister for Employment Relations requesting an urgent meeting.

Speaking after the meeting with Ernest & Young Alasdair McDonnell said: “There are fundamental questions that need to be asked and answered about the actions of both Nortel and Ernest & Young in their treatment of these dismissed employees and that is why we called this meeting today.

“We want to know why, despite repeated public assurances given by Ernst and Young when Nortel went into administration in January that it would be “business as usual”, promises that contracts would be honoured have been broken.

“We want to know why Ernest & Young clearly failed to comply with the required minimum consultation period of 30 days with employees.

“And we want to know why Ernest & Young agreed to pay a £15.5m bonus package for Nortel Executives on 20th March and then took a decision 10 days later to make 228 employees redundant at no notice with no redundancy pay”.

Dr. McDonnell described the meeting as robust and worthwhile but said it was ‘the first round in a long battle’.

“We know that in a recession people will loose jobs but the way in which they lose them is crucial. There is no excuse for denying workers respect. There is no excuse for denying workers their employment and pension rights.

"Clearly there are legal and policy gaps in workers’ protection here. Serious questions have to be asked of a system of employment law and insolvency law which permits and encourages companies to abdicate all responsibility and protection towards their workers many of who like the workers in Nortel have given a life time of service” Dr. McDonnell added.

Notes to Editor

Those attending the meeting today were:

E&Y: Alan Bloom, Chris Hill and Richard Burt

Ps: Dr. Alasdair McDonnell MP, Theresa May MP, Dr. Phyllis Starkey MP, James Arbuthnot MP, John Redwood MP, Humfrey Mallins MP and Mark Prisk MP

ENDS

03-06-08