INTEL has confirmed that 234 of its 500 temporary staff will be laid off next month due to weaker than expected demand for its computer components worldwide. Staff affected were given 30 days notice over the weekend in accordance with the terms of their temporary contracts and will leave the Leixlip plant by the end of February, a spokesman said yesterday. Most of these staff have worked at the Co Kildare based company for an average of 18 weeks.
He added that while there was no immediate threat to the jobs of the remaining temporary staff at Intel, there were "no guarantees". Intel "hopes" there are no more lay offs, he said.
Temporary staff being laid off next month, are employed in its motherboard assembly and system assembly plants. The microchip manufacturing facility at Leixlip, which is in a separate building, will not be affected by the lay offs.
Intel employs more than 2,200 full time staff at Leixlip and is proceeding with plans to create another 2,000 jobs as part of a $1.5 billion investment over the next two years. Work on the construction of a new wafer fabrication plant, to produce the company's new range of microprocessors is already under way and is due to be completed in 1998.
The company had signalled possible job losses earlier this month following slower than expected sales in the fourth quarter of 1995. Intel says it has to "adapt" to remain competitive. "Production levels must be brought into line with revised growth expectations for this year," the spokesman stated.
Intel expects that sales will now remain below its 1996 forecasts, in line with a worldwide slowdown in the rate of growth in the computer industry, predicting sales of $4.6 million in the first three months of 1996.
