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Oneita workers to get redundancy

THE MINISTRY of Labour and Social Security and former operators of the Oneita Garment factory, have reached a settlement on redundancy payments to the company's former employees.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technology, Colin Campbell, informed the House of Representatives last week, that an agreement had been reached with the former operators of the company and the Ministry.

Under the agreement, the assets of the firm are to be sold and the proceeds used to offset the claims of the former employees who had received only their outstanding salary payments at the closure.

"The related parties have assured us that within a few weeks a procedure for disbursement from this sale will be in place," Mr. Campbell said. However, asked by Opposition Members whether the funds from the sale of the assets would be enough to cover the redundancy payments, Mr. Campbell was doubtful. He said: "It may not be in full, but it will go substantially towards their commitment."

In May 1999, nearly 1000 employees of Oneita Industries, which operated two apparel factories in the Montego Bay Free Zone and the Montego Bay Freeport at the time, were closed down. This was as a result of the U.S. parent firm, Oneita Inc. International, becoming bankrupt. The plants closed with the workers owed some $27 million in redundancy pay.

The Government had assembled a task force to formulate a plan to protect the workers' interest and to look at the possibility of the plants reopening. Through JAMPRO, an effort was made to reopen the plants under the leadership of MoBay's businessman Winston Dear in 1999, but that fell through after the former employees refused to accept a proposal to plough back their redundancy pay into a new company.

The Government had proposed then to acquire the fixed assets, namely the equipment left behind by Oneita, and offer them as an incentive to potential investors. However, the Government was unable to acquire the equipment then, as it was disclosed that some machinery were leased by Oneita and checks had to be made if there was any lien on the machinery.

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