Alcatel cuts 70 Irish jobs

SEVENTY jobs are to go in Dublin and Cork though employees have been spared the worst from thousands of job cuts announced by the telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent.

The company is making at least 70 of its Irish staff redundant as part of 12,500 job cuts worldwide.

It made the decision after a review of its operations here and told employees at its base in Blanchardstown yesterday afternoon.

A statement from the company said the move came from a decision to streamline the two arms of the company with bases here.

“The company has undertaken a thorough review of its operations in Ireland and estimates that a workforce reduction of 70 positions needs to take place.

“The forced reductions reflect duplications in positions and rationalisation in the product.”

The company said the announcement is a starting point as it continues to review the entire organisation.

The redundancies had been expected since Alcatel and Lucent merged in April 2006. The new group is looking to making savings of €1.7 billion over the next three years.

It has bases on Kinsale Road, Cork; Citywest Business Campus, Dublin 24 and Blanchardstown, Dublin 15.

Prior to the merger Lucent, committed a €43 million investment in a cutting edge research base at Bell Labs in Blanchardstown where it employs 20 people.

However, the bulk of its workforce is based in Citywest.

The company said it had met with the staff representatives on its Irish consultative forum but could not be definite as to the full impact of the cuts until this discussion process was complete.