RTE to lay off 160 workers

RTE has become the third Irish company to announce lay-offs today, with 160 jobs expected to be lost across all divisions of the company.

The RTE Executive said it plans to cease a number of in-house activities in order to cut costs following the economic downturn. On top of the 160 redundancies, the national broadcaster also plans to reduce the number of people it employs on a freelance basis.

More details about the restructuring will be revealed on Friday following a meeting of the company board.

These job losses come after two other firms announced plans to lay-off Irish workers because of the impending recession. Waterford Wedgewood plans to shed around 100 jobs, while FLS will lay off 150 staff at Dublin Airport.

Celestica, the Irish Times and Logica have also announced plans to lay off a total of around 800 jobs, while 1,000 job cuts were announced throughout Ireland last week.

More than 2,000 Aer Lingus workers are also expected to lose their jobs in the coming months.