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Nortel Networks has informed 150 employees in Galway and 115 workers in Monkstown, Northern Ireland, that they will be laid off.
The job losses are part of a global reduction of workforce announced earlier this month, which will bring the total number of Nortel's employees worldwide to 45,000, a decrease of 20,000. These job losses come on top of earlier significant reductions that are expected to dramatically reduce the workforce of the Canadian telecoms equipment maker that employed an estimated 94,500 worldwide in January.
After the layoffs the Galway office will employ 400 people, compared to roughly 700 a year ago. Monkstown still had 2,000 workers twelve months ago, but this figure will go down to 1,150 after the job losses.
This was an extremely difficult announcement for the company, according to David Silke, public relations manager at Nortel Ireland. "Personally, I regret the company will lose so many excellent and committed employees. I have worked with a lot of these people for five years."
Silke said that even though many people were disappointed, the cuts did not come as a complete surprise to staff. "People knew this was coming since the announcement at the beginning of this month," he said.
The employees who will lose their jobs were notified on Tuesday. "We will consult them about what we can do for them to minimise the effect of the layoffs. We will do whatever we can to assist them in their future careers."
The job cuts were necessary to adjust the workforce to the current business levels, claimed Silke. He said the move was part of a drive to bring down the break-even point and return the company to profitability. "Even though we lost so many people, it will be absolutely possible to continue our operations in Ireland." Silke stressed that no further job cuts are in the pipeline.
The public relations manager said that the research & development (R&D) activities in Galway were of special importance to Nortel. The company said that its R&D job creation scheme in Galway would go ahead as planned and some of the company's employees would be transferred to that department. "This will bring the number of R&D jobs in Galway to 240, which shows that [Nortel] absolutely has a future in Galway," Silke said. Nortel has had offices in Galway since 1973.
Two weeks ago Nortel announced it expected the losses for the third quarter to amount to USD3.5 billion, compared to a loss of USD7.3 billion a year earlier.
For more information visit http://www.nortelnetworks.com
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