Any employee made redundant by telecoms company Go has to receive compensation equivalent to that offered in its latest early retirement scheme, the General Workers’ Union is insisting.

Section secretary Andrew Mizzi said the union was putting its foot down on the terms offered to anyone who will be made redundant. Moreover, talks between the company and the union to discuss Go’s plans to shed jobs would only take place if a manager told to leave last Monday was reinstated.

He said the union had made its requests in a letter sent to Go soon after it was informed about the planned redundancies and when it registered an industrial dispute on Wednesday. The company has until Monday to react to the requests before the union goes ahead with industrial action.

“We are geared for industrial action immediately to defend the employment of workers, especially this 57-year-old manager who was given a cheque equivalent to 12 weeks notice and sent home never to return,” Mr Mizzi said.

This worker had been with the company since 1978 and was sent packing despite the last-in-first-out principle. The company had recently employed people in his grade, he said, adding that unless the worker was reinstated, no talks would take place.

Go did not invoke the collective redundancy clause in the collective agreement, which had to be brought into the picture if more than 30 would be laid off. Although, according to law, this had to be invoked for redundancies of more than 30 people in a 30-day period, Mr Mizzi said it was positive this clause had not yet been invoked.

He said redundancies should take the form of voluntary retirement schemes and the GWU would work towards that aim.

In the latest scheme in 2008, the company had offered workers a maximum of €60,000 in compensation.

Sources close to the company said there was no target on how many jobs would be shed as this had to be determined through talks with union representatives. What Go was doing was shedding costs not employees, the sources added.

The sources said the company had to cut costs to ensure long-term competitiveness in view of increased competition it was facing.

The company plans to spend €100 million over the coming six years to offer its customers the “innovation and efficiency they expect”.