Telecoms firm Ericsson is to to cut 300 jobs at its research and development section in Clonskeagh, Dublin.
The company currently employs 1,700 people at facilites in Clonskeagh, Dún Laoghaire and Athlone, Co Westmeath. Ericsson Ireland said the job losses would place on a phased basis over the next eighteen months.
Announcing its fourth quarter results last month, Ericsson had warned that it intended to cut 5,000 jobs worldwide and reduce costs across the company this year as part of a review of its global operations.
The firm, which employs nearly 80,000 employees in 175 countries, said it would reduce its global workforce by approximately six per cent with at least a fifth of all redundancies taking place in Sweden.
“This is part of the action being taken across the world to consolidate operations into fewer locations. The objective is to safeguard and strengthen the company’s operations for the future. It is unfortunate but inevitable that some of our local operations in Ireland would be affected,” said Ericsson Ireland's managing director John Hennessy.
"We have a highly experienced and committed workforce in Ireland of 1,700 staff: over 80 per cent of these jobs will remain. We will provide a comprehensive redundancy package and all the support we possibly can to all of our affected employees, including advisory services and outplacement support, during this difficult time," he added.
Ericsson Ireland has had operations in Ireland since 1957.
Siptu said the union would oppose any attempt by Ericsson to introduce compulsory job cuts. Union official Peter Glynn said: “These are high value added jobs with a highly productive, highly skilled graduate workforce and that makes the news that the company intends outsourcing to either China or Hungary all the more worrying”.
He described the job cuts as "an opportunist move to drive down costs, regardless of the consequences for the workers."
