Hope and despair as Dell layoffs begin

THE 470 Dell workers who finished up at the plant yesterday as part of the phased close-down will return this morning to collect their redundancy cheques and P45 forms.

This is the first tranche of layoffs since the announcement by the company on January 8, that the entire personal computer manufacturing operation was being transferred to Lodz in Poland with the loss of 1,900 jobs by the end of the year. Since then, the company announced that 100 of the 1,000 workers in the back up services area are also to be made redundant.

Redundancy cheques being given out today will amount to around €24,000 for most workers who have about 10 years service with the company. Tony O’Shea, 55, who has worked at Dell for the past eight years said yesterday he and a group of colleagues have organised a farewell dinner tonight.