Employees at Baxter Healthcare in Mayo were issued with letters on Friday last from management, following a recent announcement of global restructuring by the US based Baxter International.
The letter indicates that the company is to introduce “a series of strategic actions to drive the company’s operational effectiveness and improved long-term performance.”
Baxter International plans to spin off its renal care and acute therapies units into a separate company.
It is also looking at alternatives for BioPharma Solutions which is Baxter’s contract manufacturing business.
The manufacturing facility in Castlebar currently employs in excess of 600 people, with more employees in the Swinford plant.
In a letter to workers, a company spokesperson said that while it was still early days following the announcement, the Castlebar and Swinford operation is approximately 70% renal and will be directly impacted by the change.
The company has told staff that a significant part of the work ahead will be to finalise a plan to separate manufacturing, where possible, and establish Transitional Service Agreements for locations that cannot be dedicated to one business or the other.
Baxter says that as of now, all employees’ terms and conditions remain unchanged.
Midwest News contacted Baxter Healthcare in Mayo today to ask about the proposed development and the company forwarded a press release, but as yet, has had no one available to speak to Midwest News on air.
We contacted Gregg Ennis, the Manufacturing Division Organiser at SIPTU, for a comment, as SIPTU represents more than 700 employees between both the Castlebar and Swinford plants.
He said SIPTU is fully aware of the correspondence from the company received by its members on Friday last, and stated “SIPTU does not believe that there will be any imminent changes to the terms or conditions of the workers, or to the number of staff employed, at Baxter Healthcare in Mayo”.
He added that “SIPTU will be engaging directly with the company in the next number of days, to discuss this recent development”.
