'Left in the dark' - Ex Waterford Crystal workers hold protest outside Leinster House
'Left in the dark', is how one ex-Waterford Crystal worker explained how they feel today. It comes as up to 40 ex-workers have made the trip to Dublin today to meet with Waterford TD'S to discuss the ongoing 30-year pension battle.
The group is currently outside Leinster House where a number of Waterford TDs are to meet them to discuss the ongoing pension dispute.
Speaking to WLR News at lunchtime, ex-worker John Tbay says it has been a lengthy battle.
"We are meeting the four Waterford TDs outside the Dáil to put our points across that we didn't get our three options which we were meant to get under he 1990 pension act.
"It has been going on too long, and we need to get this sorted because there are people passing away who are due their pensions.
"500 families, imagine 500 families that have been left out in the lurch... it's not right."
The battle started back in the early 90s when a group of more than 400 employees agreed on a voluntary redundancy package with their employer.
However, because this was accepted, they were excluded from a government compensation fund years later after the company's insolvency, and now they say they have no pension.
2014 Waterford Crystal protest in Dublin
Never advised of the repercussions
Workers say they were not advised of the consequences of signing the voluntary redundancies, and that it should have been made clearer.
"We left in 92, and the new pension act came in in 1990," John Tbay continued to say, "we were not advised at the time when we signed for the return of our credits.
"Our trustees should have advised us in relation to that and they did not. We found out later down the road that by signing that return of credits we forged our pensions rights altogether.
"Never advised by the trustees which included the union, the company, and the pensions provider IPT Irish Pensions trust.
"The message today is that we are at a stalemate and we are going to make a suggestion to them that we want to go to the WRC or an independent arbiter to look into the case and get the facts out there.
"The truth is being told and that is the bottom line."
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