Careers and Jobs

US multinational Bausch & Lomb is reported to be seeking 195 voluntary redundancies at its manufacturing plant in Waterford according to one leading newspaper this afternoon. Bausch & Lomb is one of the leading employers in the South-East region and this news will come as another major blow to Waterford. The company currently employs 1,400 staff for whom the news was broken today by management.

Bausch & Lomb manufactures contact lenses.

There has been negative jobs news for two counties in Ireland – Donegal & Dublin due to announcement by two major employers IBM & Boston Scientific.

IBM is seeking 120 voluntary redundancies at its plant in Mulhuddart as it moves the manufacturing of high-end computer servers to a base in Singapore. Those workers taking redundancy option are expected to leave by the end of April. This news continues the trend of manufacturing moving from Ireland to cheaper cost base countries.

Boston Scientific has dealt a blow to Donegal. The company plans to move the manufacturing facility from Letterkenny to Galway. The plant employs 120 staff in Donegal and according to the company some of these workers can move to Galway plant.

Celestica Ireland employs 380 at its manufacturing plant in Galway. Celectica is a canadian electronics firm which previously had operations in Dublin. Over the last week working hours have been cut for workers in the plant however a general meeting is due to take place to dicuss the future of the plant. Celestica has been struggling with the economic climate and recently closed a plant in the US with the loss of over 500 jobs.

According to today’s newspapers there could be 100 jobs lost at Molex in Shannon, Co. CLare. 100 of the 400 jobs could see their jobs cut with remaining staff taking salary cuts as a result of cost cutting measures. Molex make electronic, electrical and fibre optic interconnection systems at the Shannon plant. The company held a series of meetings on Tuesday to inform staff of redundancies and other cost-saving plans.

Dell have announced that they will cut about 1,900 jobs in Ireland as it plans to move its manufacturing function to Poland and a facility in Lodz. The jobs will be lost starting April with the transfer of manufacturing expected to be complete in 12 months time.

Dell announced a 3bn global cost cutting programme in 2008 and although it was expected that Ireland operations would have job casualties it was hoped otherwise. The positive new I guess is that 1,100 jobs were save in that these staff will continue to manage EMEA manufacturing, logistics and supply. Dell’s 1,500 employees in Cherrywood remain unaffected by the recent announcement.

The company statement read “We are proud of our 18-year tenure as a major manufacturer in Ireland. This is a difficult decision, but the right one for Dell to become even more competitive, and deliver greater value to customers in the region.”

Although the news is not a real surprise, as there have been job fears for months, it is still a terrible blow for the employees coming so close into the new year.

A reciever has been appointed for Waterford Wedgewood and the company has requested that its shares be suspended from trading on stock exchange. Senior management seem confident that a buyer but the 800 employees in Ireland and 1800 in UK stare into an uncertain period. Only last October Waterford Crystal told workers of its plans to lay off 280 staff at the kilbarry plant.

Waterford Wedgewood manufactures Waterford Crystal and also Wedgewood fine China.

Careers and Jobs bringing you all the latest jobs news in Ireland.

US based firm Microsemi has announced that it will create 315 new jobs over the next 18 months at its facility in Ennis, Co Clare. Microsemi designs and manufactures integrated circuits and semiconductors. The positions will be in manufacturing, technical support and sales. Only last May that Microsemi changed a decision to phase out its operations in Ennis. Great jobs news and a Christmas present for County Clare.

Interviews Ireland

Today the newspapers announced that there are growing over the future of jobs at Kostal. This follows the news that the German manufacturer will cut working tme by 20% from February. The firm manufacters automotive electronic systems employs a total of 1,100 workers in Ireland. Downturn in global car sales has been sited as a reason for the cutbacks which will affect its two plants in Ireland – Mallow & Abbeyfeale. 29 workers are expected to be laid off this side of Christmas. There will also be shutdowns at these plants for three days in November and for three weeks over Christmas. From next February working hours at Mallow & Abbeyfeale will be reduced by 20 percent.

There are fears for the future of about 100 jobs in Limerick as Flextronics investigates cost cutting. Flextronics employs 290 people in the Limerick. The company provides logistics and warehousing services for many companies in the region, including large multinationals like Dell Computers. There have been ongoing talks between unions and management with an announcement expected next week.

Obviously performance at Flextronics is directly impacted by performance at Dell. It is not surprising that Dell is to axe 400 temp workers. Newspapers reported that Dell is to axe at least 400 temporary workers this weekend. The computer manufacturer confirmed that 400 temp staff will be let go in Limerick. This news has increased fears for the 3000 permanent employees

Another blow for electronics was the news that Motorola is cutting 3,000 jobs globally.

Rosderra has created 120 new jobs at its meat plant in Edenderry. A 10m euro investment will create 120 new jobs but also save the existing 250 jobs at the former Glanbia plant. For more information on this news …