Further 400 Dell workers to be laid off

ANOTHER 400 workers at the Dell plant are to be laid off next week as part of the phased closure of the Limerick plant, a spokesperson confirmed yesterday.

More than 450 workers were made redundant last April.

The remaining 1,050 manufacturing workers and 100 services employees will lose their jobs over the next eight months as the company transfers its Limerick operation to Lodz in Poland.

One worker said: “The manufacturing lines are being closed down one by one. Line seven will close next week and more of us will face the dole queue. The mood is very down.”

Dell made the decision to move from Ireland as part of a $4 billion (€2.8bn) cost-cutting plan in the company’s worldwide operation.

Workers in Lodz are paid about €3 an hour compared to €11 in Limerick.

The company commenced building a huge plant in Lodz in May 2007, and Polish workers were brought to Limerick to train.

The Lodz plant, covering 400,000sq ft, is twice the size of the Limerick facility.

However, the company insisted there was no threat to the Limerick operation from the new facility in Poland.

Dell invested €200 million to start up the Lodz operation and the company got about a quarter of this in grants from the Polish government.

Meanwhile, the task force set up by the Government in the wake of the Dell closure announcement on January 8 is expected to make an interim report in coming weeks.

The task force is headed by former Kerry Group chief executive, Denis Brosnan.

It is believed that some key recommendations include a restructuring of local government in Limerick city and county and the creation of special tax incentive zones.

Well-informed sources claim that the interim report will strongly recommend that Limerick city and county councils be replaced by one overall council.

And to stimulate jobs, a number of tax incentive zones are being recommended.

These will be located in the unemployment black spots designated for major redevelopment under the city regeneration plan.

The regeneration plan has been hit by the economic crash and this year will have to work on a budget of around €25m.