Electronic manufacturing services company Celestica is seeking 450 voluntary redundancies from its workforce of over 900 at its facility in Swords in north Dublin.
According to a statement from the company, the job losses are due to the global economic downturn, which has resulted its largest customer, Motorola, significantly cutting production of mobile phones, which are manufactured in Swords.
In response to today's news from Celestica, Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Harney announced the establishment of a North Dublin Jobs Initiative.
'This initiative will bring together FAS, the Local Area Partnership, Local Authority, the County Enterprise Board and Enterprise Ireland to ensure that people losing their jobs are fully appraised of employment, training and business opportunities', the Tanaiste said.
'In terms of competitive environment and excellent infrastructure, this area is one of the best-positioned locations for attracting new investment of every type as has been evidenced in recent years,' she said.
'I am optimistic that this area will continue its strong development despite recent setbacks', she concluded.
By the end of the year, Celestica will have ceased production of Motorola mobile phones, though it will continue to make pagers for the company. Celestica will now begin a 30-day consultative period with its employees.
The company stressed that the decision to cut back in no way reflected on the operational performance of the Dublin facility - although no other Celestica manufacturing facility is affected.
The company also said it remained committed to maintaining a strategic presence in Ireland.
Celestica workers who are facing redundancy will receive six weeks pay per year of completed service. This will include years of service accumulated by former Motorola employees taken on by Celestica within the last year.
Celestica's Finance Director, Donal Casey, confirmed that the jobs were not transferring to a lower cost economy, but that the redundancies were caused by a drop in demand for Motorola products.
