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The Canadian telecoms equipment manufacturer said on Wednesday that 200 positions will be made redundant at the company's facility in Monkstown, Northern Ireland over the coming weeks. The firm has already entered into discussions with employee representatives over the cuts, which will cut across all division at the plant. Nortel currently employs 970 in Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile, in the Republic of Ireland, at the company's research and development centre in Galway, about 20 jobs will go. That facility currently has about 370 workers who are employed in research and development as well as in treasury functions. A company spokesperson said that the Galway cuts could hit R&D personnel as well as other workers.
The cuts come after Nortel said in August it would have to trim another 7,000 jobs globally, warning that third quarter revenues would not meet expectations. At the time the company said that revenue would be as much as 10 percent lower than previous announced guidance. Those 7,000 cuts, set for completion by the end of the fourth quarter, will reduce Nortel's global headcount to 35,000. And these cuts, according to Nortel, are designed to bring the business back to breakeven, which now stands at quarterly revenue of around USD2.6 billion, compared to its earlier target of USD3.2 billion.
The lost jobs follow what seems to be a never-ending stream of cuts in Ireland. In fact Nortel's 60,000 global job cuts since January 2001 have had a devastating effect in its Irish operations, with over 1,200 jobs lost in Northern Ireland over the past two years. The company's operations in the Republic have not fared much better, having experienced 150 layoffs in October 2001, followed by more losses in May 2002 and again in July when 40 employees lost their jobs.
Still, a Nortel spokesperson said that the company's Monkstown facility was "critical" to the European operation of Nortel and that the company had no plans to shut the factory altogether.
In its last set of results, the Canadian company matched forecasts with a pro forma loss of USD0.09 a share in the quarter with sales of USD2.77 billion, just slightly below consensus targets of USD2.8 billion. Second-quarter net loss was USD697 million, or USD0.20 a share, much better than last year's loss of USD19.4 billion, or USD6.08 per share, which was mostly due to a USD14 billion write-down for acquisitions.
The move however follows a number of dreary announcements from telecoms manufacturers in the North, including the closure of Getty Connections last week with a loss of 135 jobs, and 80 jobs cut recently announced by Solectron in the province.
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