80 Irish jobs to go at GE Money

GE MONEY has announced it is axing 80 of its 400 employees following what it described as a significant review of its Irish operation.

Thu, 11 Dec, 2008 - 00:00

The loans company blamed the “extreme volatility and greatly increasing cost of funds on the global wholesale money markets” for its decision.

“GE Money has to be more selective in its allocation of capital and needs to ensure it gets a reasonable return on investment,” a spokesman said.

“Mortgages in particular, are capital-intensive businesses and the returns available at present no longer justify the cost of funding these products in Ireland.”

The company said it wanted to keep a presence in the Irish market.

However, it said from January it would no longer offer residential mortgages here.

It added that the changes will have no impact on its existing mortgages, personal loans, car finance agreements and insurance policies.

GE Money was formed in 1997 after the takeover of Woodchester Investments.

At the time the deal was the largest takeover in Irish corporate history.

Last night it said it had embarked on an employee consultation process and the affected staff were being offered a number of alternatives, including the option to apply for one of a number of open positions in the organisation, or to avail of a ‘generous redundancy package’.

Meanwhile, at Co Clare company Element 6, (formerly De Beers Industrial Diamonds) where management last week announced plans to seek 150 redundancies, the company looks set to introduce a three-week month and rostering system for the remaining 470 staff in the new year.

A letter confirming the move to a ‘three week on — one week off’ arrangement commencing on January 5 was due to be sent to staff this week, although by last night the document had still not been issued.

While SIPTU says it is adamant that there should be no ‘short time’ for workers, the union would only say: “There has been no agreement on this issue and discussions on the matter are not a priority, so it is not the subject of discussions at present.”