Brick firm sheds 95% of staff

A brick manufacturer in Northern Ireland is axing 95% of its workforce as stockpiles hit 35 million.

Tyrone Brick is ceasing the vast majority of production resulting in 62 job losses at its Coalisland plant.

A 30-day consultation period is now underway after the workforce and Unite were notified of the redundancy plans by management.

Tyrone Brick, part of materials giant CRH, will retain a skeleton staff at the site to produce specialist bricks for the beleaguered construction sector.

A spokeswoman for the company told the Belfast Telegraph: "The ongoing slowdown in construction activity has resulted in a significant reduction in demand for product and has necessitated a review of operations across the business.

"Tyrone Brick confirms that it continues to be engaged in a consultative process with its workforce and their representatives. Discussions are now at an advanced stage and a number of redundancies are envisaged."

The company has said normal operations will continue at Tyrone Brick during the consultative process.

Unite regional industrial organiser Sean McKeever said: "The company has 35 million bricks stockpiled and has no further storage capacity and few orders are coming in so we have accepted that the only thing left for us to do is negotiate a redundancy package."

Last April, Tyrone Brick closed one of its production facilities on the Cookstown Road resulting in 20 job losses.