Estimated 100 jobs under threat at Hertz in Dublin

An estimated 100 jobs at the European operation in Dublin of car rental giant Hertz are under threat, after the company informed staff yesterday of an outsourcing plan as part of a wider group restructuring.

The company confirmed late last night that it is beginning a consultation process with staff in its Dublin finance unit. It also operates European-wide customer care facilities from a site in Swords that employs more than 900.

The company declined to comment on the number of jobs that are to go at its Irish operation but it is believed to be planning to shed more than a tenth of its workforce here. It called a meeting of affected workers yesterday at 4.30pm.

Modernisation

It is thought it may outsource the roles to a company such as

IBM

. Staff at Hertz’s Oklahoma office in the US, for example, were told this week that more than 200 IT and finance roles would move to IBM.

“Hertz is embarking on a modernisation initiative that will transform certain functional areas within its service centres in 2016,” it said last night.

“Hertz announced to employees during a meeting of staff . . . that certain finance administration functions currently located . . . in Swords are under review and may potentially be outsourced.”

It insisted that its European Service Centre in Dublin “is a strategically important facility in Hertz’s global operations and the contribution of our staff employed in Swords is highly valued”.

Hertz, which is headquartered in Florida and listed in New York, has shed more than half its market value in the past three months. The car rental giant has been battered by investors after a string of errors in recent years in its accounts forced it to restate numbers going back to 2011.

Equipment rental

Activist investors, including

Carl Icahn

and

Barry Rosenstein

, have built stakes in the company. Since Mr Icahn became involved with the company, it has announced a number of strategic pivots such as the spinning off of its equipment rental business.

In its third quarter results last November, it announced a 5 per cent fall in sales to just under $3 billion (€2.65 billion) for the quarter. It targeted cost savings of $200 million for 2015 and said it would strip out $300 million in 2016.

Hertz expanded its European operation at Dublin with the addition of an extra 100 jobs in 2010. That investment was supported by IDA Ireland.

Hertz European Service Centre, its main Irish unit, had sales of €63 million in 2014, the last year for which accounts are available, and made profits of €10 million.