120 to lose jobs in Limerick as SerCom ceases assembly work

Supply chain management specialist SerCom Solutions has announced it is to make 120 workers redundant at its facility in Co Limerick.

The lay-offs follow a decision by the company, a subsidiary of business support services group DCC, to discontinue the production and assembly of LCD screens used in laptop computers from May 2nd.

SerCom said it was dealing with lower volumes in this field of business and the lay-offs come as a result of "changing customer requirements".

Employees were notified of the redundancies at a staff meeting in Limerick last night.

SerCom now intends to engage in a 30-day consultation period with its employees, following which, the final redundancy outcome will be confirmed.

The company also confirmed last night that an outplacement programme to support all employees being made redundant would be put in place at a later date.

Limerick Labour Party TD Jan O'Sullivan described the redundancies as the latest in a pattern of job losses in the manufacturing sector.

"Losses of up to 120 jobs will hit the area hard.

"Limerick and the Shannon region must now be given priority by the job creation agencies to compensate for all these job losses," she said.

Ms O'Sullivan also said this latest announcement of redundancies must ring alarm bells for the Government.

"There has been 11,500 added to the live register figures and complacency in the face of mounting numbers on the live register will get us nowhere.

"The Government appears to have been on auto-pilot for some months now, and there is no apparent strategy in place for addressing these concerns.

"This news raises serious concerns and I am calling on job creation bosses to give priority status for attracting employment and investment to Limerick and Shannon regions," she said.

A statement issued by SerCom last night said the company would continue to provide a number of outsourcing services including order and warehouse management, product sourcing, procurement services, distribution and logistics management.

SerCom headquarters is located in Dublin.

The company currently employs 312 full-time staff in Dublin, Limerick, Poland, China and the US. SerCom was founded in 1978.