Former Waterford Crystal workers still seek pension redress after 35 years

Former Waterford Crystal employee Walter Croke, now 71, continues to campaign for pension redress after claiming he lost €180,000 following his voluntary redundancy in 1992.

Croke, who began work at the factory at age 15 in 1965, says he was offered only an immediate refund of his pension contributions – £3,078 in old pounds – rather than the three options stipulated in his contract, which included a transfer or deferred pension. He received statutory redundancy and an ex gratia lump sum of £29,410, taking home £34,338 after tax.

An actuarial report by Joseph G Byrnes and Sons estimates the decision cost Croke €179,100 in the long term. He now joins around 400 former staff, organised as the Waterford Crystal Pension Action Group (WCPAG), in seeking compensation.

Other former workers echo his concerns. Anne Hammond recounts the hardship faced by her husband Tosh, a glassblower of 24 years who took redundancy due to ill health and died ten years later, leaving the family without a social security net.

The factory, once employing over 3,000 people in the 1970s and early 80s, faced market pressures and strikes in the early 1990s, leading to the redundancies that sparked the ongoing pension dispute.

Source: Irish Examiner. Photo: Jan Wright / Pexels.