DHL plans to close its Cavan operation

DHL, the courier company that operates a branch at Oldtown Business Park, Ballyjamesduff Road, Cavan town plans to close it operation in Ireland with a loss of 320 jobs. The company employs two people in its Cavan depot and proposes to close seven regional depots at Sligo, Athlone, Galway, Enniscorthy, Waterford and Tralee, as well as Cavan. The company says it is scaling back on its domestic services to focus on international express delivery. Talks aimed at saving jobs began on Monday as unions and management discussed the planned lay-offs, announced last Thursday. Sarah Ryan of Drury Communication told the Anglo-Celt this week that there will be a 30-day consultation period between management and the union. 'The management decision is that all seven identified depots are to close and how that happens will be subject to the discussions. That is purely a management decision.' Ms Ryan was not in a position to comment if any of the staff from the Cavan depot could be redeployed elsewhere within the company if some of the depots are not to close. 'That will be decided throughout the consultation period. It"s premature to say what will happen as the talks only just begun on Monday. We will have to wait the outcome of the discussions,' she added. Meanwhile Vernon Hegarty from SIPTU, speaking to the Anglo-Celt earlier this week, gave his view of the overall position in Cavan. 'There is always the danger of the threat of companies going on a three-day week or taking leave. Some companies are depending on what is coming in next week to determine the pattern on work,' he said. The position was being monitored on a continuous basis, he added. 'We appreciate that companies are existing under very tight budgets and very tight cash flow. It is being monitored weekly, which is very much across the board, just out of necessity,' said Mr. Hegarty. Some companies were doing quite well under the present circumstances in term of orders, but again there was a cashflow problem whereby they may be filling their orders but were experiencing difficulty in collecting money. In the extreme end of the spectrum, a few companies have to operate on a week-by-week basis. In other companies, the order books were strong but it was about confidence to put out product to customers, he stated. 'In Cavan there are some companies that may be looking at three days a week. Companies for the most part are being co-operative and we are taking a common sense approach with them, saying let"s look and see what we can do, how to minimise the pain and how to ride out this period of difficult trading.' That has been SIPTU"s approach and for the most part the companies" as well, he concluded.