Boston Scientific staff in Cork and across Ireland told of global outage

Staff at Boston Scientific’s Cork plant were sent home as teams work to restore network communications worldwide

It is understood that all staff on the day shift at Boston Scientific's Cork plant on Model Farm Road were sent home at 2pm with full pay. Picture: Larry Cummins

More than 7,000 staff across Boston Scientific’s three Irish plants were informed on Tuesday of a global outage affecting its operations worldwide.

Irish employees were told of the issue shortly before lunchtime on August 25th in an email to all staff.

“We are currently experiencing a global outage affecting network communications across our Ireland sites and other locations worldwide,” the communication said.

“Our local and global IT teams are actively working together to understand the issue and restore services as soon as possible.

“We will share a further update as soon as more information becomes available.” 

It is understood that all staff on the day shift at the multinational’s Cork plant on Model Farm Road were sent home at 2pm with full pay.

Contract staff on the evening shift at the Cork plant were subsequently sent home and told they would be given four hours’ pay. 

Full-time staff in Cork were offered the same terms but declined, saying they were making themselves available for work.

Sources say staff in the company’s plants at Clonmel and Galway were told on Tuesday afternoon that they would not be required to work their shifts and could instead take unpaid leave or holiday leave.

More than 7,000 staff employed across Ireland 

Boston Scientific, a US medical technology multinational, was founded in 1979 in Massachusetts and employs an estimated 59,000 people worldwide.

It employs more than 7,000 people across its plants in Galway, Clonmel and Cork, with an estimated 1,200 employees at its Model Farm Road plant.

Boston Scientific was asked for comment.