Uncertain future for Shinko staff as Fujitsu cuts back

Staff at Shinko Microelectronics Ireland face an uncertain future following the announcement by Fujitsu, which owns 49 per cent of the company, that it is cutting 16,400 jobs worldwide as part of a restructuring plan.

The cuts are expected to come in Fujitsu's semiconductor and telecommunications businesses which have experienced a massive slump.

Tallaght-based Shinko Microelectronics Ireland is a joint venture between Shinko Electronic Industries of Japan and Fujitsu.

The company, which carries out the testing and assembly of integrated circuits, employs around 350 people.

"No final conclusion has been reached," said Mr Roger Murphy, personnel director of Shinko Microelectronics Ireland. "It is a strategic announcement from Fujitsu Limited, which is the holding company for the entire group, and very clearly our fate is somewhere in there without a doubt."

The company has been exposed to the global fall in demand for its products.

"It's been a very bad year. We're a global exporter.

" Ninety per cent of our production goes to the mobile phone market and that's the area that has taken the biggest hit. Our plant loading has been far less than it has been in the past and than we'd like it to be. Unfortunately we had to release 37 people in layoffs about two months ago.

"We've had a pay freeze in place and we've had a few compulsory holidays. We've implemented counter measures as the problem has mounted," said Mr Murphy.

He said it was too early to say whether the Fujitsu announcement would lead to further job cuts.

"I can't say frankly what will happen. A number of options are under examination," said Mr Murphy.

The company has been in Ireland for 21 years, first as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fujitsu. Around three years ago, a joint venture was established whereby Shinko took a 51 per cent shareholding in the company.

Mr John McGlynn, human resources and general affairs manager with Fujitsu Isotec, a Fujitsu subsidiary which employs 160 people manufacturing components in Blanchardstown, said he did not expect the parent company's announcement to have a direct impact on the firm there.

"We don't fall within the ambit of the announcement in terms of the sectors they are targeting," he said.

"But we're not immune to the harsh realities of commercialism. out there as well."

Mr John Pierce, marketing manager of Fujitsu subsidiary, ICL, said the cutbacks would not affect ICL's operations in the Republic.

The company employs 200 people in IT services at sites in Harcourt Street and Leopardstown in Dublin and Dundalk in Co Louth.