Sacked workers occupy factory

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has been asked to investigate the circumstances surrounding the abrupt closure of two electronic component plants owned by Simclar (Ayrshire) at the end of January. A total of 420 jobs at Kilwinning and Irvine are affected.

During a demonstration outside the Kilwinning plant, a few days later, members of the workforce staged a dramatic occupation, which sparked a debate in the Scottish parliament that was highly critical of the employer's actions.

Sam Russell, chair of the Simclar Group, is at the centre of the row. Willie Patterson, regional secretary of the Community union, insists that Russell and his fellow directors should be held to account for the way they "cynically avoided" their responsibilities to hold proper consultation prior to making the redundancies.

Patterson added that workers should be paid the redundancy pay they were contractually entitled to and the Scottish Executive should seek to recoup any grants that the company had received to support employment in Scotland. According to Rosemary Byrne MSP, the group has received funding through regional financial assistance, including £1 million in 2003 and £500,000 in 2004.

After a series of meetings with the administrator, unions and local MSPs and MPs, deputy enterprise minister Allan Wilson said: "There are a number of unanswered questions surrounding this company which require investigation and we owe it to the workforce to get to the bottom of them."