3Com to cut further 30 jobs at sites

US technology company 3Com are cutting 30 jobs at its operations in Dublin, which have seen hundreds of jobs go in the past two years.

The company, which manufactures computer networking equipment, informed staff last week of the cuts, which will begin in the next few weeks.

The company is reorganising its business worldwide again as it has still not fully recovered its financial health since the technology bubble collapsed five years ago.

The cuts come from a workforce of less than 100. At one stage 3Com had employed 1,000 people in Dublin and Galway. However, the downturn in the technology sector forced a massive restructuring of the company, which saw its factory in West Dublin close with the loss of 640 jobs in September 2003.

Before that it shut a research and development facility in Galway.

The company said at the time of the Dublin closure that it was moving its manufacturing to cheaper economies in Asia.

The company’s remaining operations in Ireland are largely marketing related. It may also sell part of its site in Dublin.

As part of the cuts, the company also plans to reduce its workforce in Edinburgh.

3Com’s latest set of results, which were released last December, show its sales continued to fall, down to $151m from $181m and its lost close to $50m.

The job losses continue a mixed year for the employment market. Though hundreds of jobs have been created across the country, with 450 alone announced last Friday, there have been a number of losses, with 150 going at poultry producer Castlemahon and at Irish Sugar.