Visteon workers vote to back deal

Visteon workers at the companies West Belfast site have voted to accept a deal to end a dispute over the closure of the factory. Member backed the deal by 147 to 34 votes.

The deal includes enhanced redundancy payments, as well as compensation in lieu of notice and holiday pay.

Those who were employed after Visteon took over the plant nine years ago say their pay-off is not fair compared to those who started working under original owners Ford. The deal means some workers will get six months pay, while the majority will get 12 months pay.

Tony Woodley, the general secretary of trade union Unite, said the criticisms were "understandable but not realistic".

"The factory went into administration with five minutes notice, the administrators were going to give our people statutory redundancy pay," he said.

"We worked our socks off, without all of this efforts we wouldn't be having 23 people disappointed, we be having 610 people disappointed.

"Twenty-three people would have had two weeks pay, now its at least six months pay."

Meanwhile, the rest of the workforce which has occupied the plant since the dispute began more than four weeks ago, say they will wait until the agreement is ratified at national level and redundancy payments begin before they leave the site.