Fears for 250 Cork jobs

THE majority of the 250 jobs at Cork electronics manufacturer Tyco Sensormatic could be lost in the coming months.

Tyco has been engaged in a global review of manufacturing in its safety products division for some time.

It is understood the company is now about to close a facility in Puerto Rico and move those operations to the plant in Cork.

However, according to sources in the Bishopstown operation, there are fears among the workforce that the jobs will only be maintained in Cork for as long as it takes to build a new facility in Mexico. At that point, it is likely at most only a handful of the employees will be retained in Cork.

Workers are unhappy that the company is not keeping them abreast of the decision process in the company’s head-office in Bermuda.

The Cork facility used to employ 475 people at Bishopstown before scaling down operations in 2005.

At that point it made profits of €73.4 million.

Last year the company let 178 employees go from its Shannon facility, retaining only 20 to carry out research and development.

Any restructuring at the operation in Bishopstown is unlikely to affect the company’s healthcare divisions also based in Ireland. That accounts for 2,000 jobs in Athlone, Dublin, Tullanmore and Galway.