300 jobs to go at Ericsson

Ericsson is to lay off 300 workers over the next 18 months at its Dublin plant.

There will be no job losses at the company's plant in Athlone.

The company wants to relocate the work at the research and development section at Clonskeagh to a lower cost base for the next ten years.

Managing Director and Country Manager for Ireland John Hennessy said: 'This is part of the action being taken around the world to consolidate operations into fewer locations.

'The objective is to safeguard and strengthen the company's operations for the future. It is unfortunate but inevitable that some of our local operations in Ireland would be affected.'

Mr Hennessy also said that the company will provide a 'comprehensive redundancy package and all the support we possibly can to all our our affected employees'.

The redundancies will take place over an 18-month period beginning at the end of the first quarter.

According to one staff member, five-and-a-half weeks per year of service on top of the statutory two-and-a-half weeks redundancy will be offered.

The redundancies are compulsory and all staff at the facility in Clonskeagh are affected.

Don Reynolds, an official with SIPTU, which represents workers in the company, said the announcement of job loses was a surprise.

Workers say it was not expected that jobs in Clonskeagh would go, as the unit had good productivity ratings within the group.

Earlier the 2,000 Ericsson workers in Dublin and Athlone met with management following the company's decision to undertake a worldwide review of operations.

On 23 January, Ericsson announced sweeping job cuts worldwide after recording profit losses in a stagnant telecommunications market.

The company said it would review its operations in every country in which it is based.