More than Donegal-based 30 employees of an international company say they remain in the dark about their futures.
The workers are part of an overall Irish workforce of Carelon Global Solutions, a tech firm which employs up to 300 people in Ireland, many of them in Limerick.
The parent company, Elevance Health, started a review into their business in Ireland which is ongoing.
Up to 30 of the 300 jobs are believed to be allocated to workers in a Donegal hub.
Many of these employees are former employees of Letterkenny firm Optum who switched over in recent months.
It was launched in Limerick in November 2021.
Now, over a month later, after a 30 day consultation period ended on 6 May, the staff have still not been given a formal notice of redundancy, or even been told if they are in fact being made redundant.
A spokesperson for Carelon told The Journal: “As part of our ongoing review of business operations and given the changing healthcare landscape, Elevance Health continues to consider ceasing operations of Carelon Global Solutions Ireland Limited.”
“We understand this news has been difficult for associates, whose achievements and continued dedication and service are fully appreciated, and we are committed to supporting them as we work through this process,” they added.
A Donegal-based worker said local workers in Donegal and their colleagues across the country are in total limbo.
“Hysteria would not be an exaggerated way to describe how people feel at this stage. When management does face us, hundreds of questions are lodged on Teams, we get no clarity in return.
“Some people are pregnant, expecting babies in the next few weeks, others have bought houses. The CEO, John Shaw, always told the media how proud he was that over 60% of our workforce are ‘new Irish’, as in from overseas. They have brought their families here, their kids go to local schools. Their visas depend on them having this job.”
The management forwarded an email to staff on 8 April from an official in the Department of Social Protection who said that the Minister for Enterprise had informed them that the company may be making all their staff redundant. The official asked that Carelon share a PDF from Intreo on how collective redundancy works.
“Since then we’ve had nothing in writing from management that would tell us what is going to happen with our jobs. Irish management seem to have very little information, and they can’t really explain to us why the company is closing down here.
“They asked us to put together an employee representative committee, which had a €12,000 budget for legal advice, which has been spent. The consultancy period – in which the company is speaking with the IDA and the Government, expired the Friday before last, and we’ve heard nothing, but the company is refusing to provide any further funding for our representative committee,” one worker said.
On Fridays in Carelon, management and staff take part in ‘ask anything’ sessions via an online call.
“Two of those have been cancelled in the last month. One week the CEO actually said he was cancelling it because he had an important meeting, which we later found out was with the IDA.
“It doesn’t feel like we, the employees, are the focus at all, but rather, the company is setting up the cleanest exit possible, and minimising its financial loss,” a worker said.
The Irish Industrial Authority (IDA Ireland) hailed Carelon setting up its Limerick HQ in 2021 as a boost to the local economy, and a sign that Ireland has become a destination for “top talent and investment in the healthcare sector”.
In the financial year ending 2023, it provided the company with over €832,00 in Government grant money, having given the company over €375,000 the year before.
In 2023, the company, which was formerly known as Legato, won the overall award for best firm at the Limerick Chamber Regional Business awards, it was also named as the best employer.
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