IBM said today it will seek voluntary redundancies from its European workforce and that its Irish workforce will be spared from the brunt of redundancies announced last night.
The firm employs 3,700 people in the Republic, most of them at a technology campus in Mulhuddart, Co Dublin.
Fears mounted earlier today for the future of the jobs after IBM unveiled a savage rationalisation programme that will cut 13,000 jobs from it 329,000-strong global workforce.
IBM's plans will affect operations in Germany, Britain, Italy and France, and include cuts in the United States, the company's chief financial officer said today.
Mark Loughridge told investors on a conference call today that the cuts will "generally" be voluntary in Europe but be involuntary elsewhere, specifically in the United States.
He said the world's largest computer company expects to realise about $300 million to $500 million in savings during the second half of 2005, and $1 billion or more during 2006 as a result of its restructuring actions.
This amounts to around 1 per cent of total corporate spending.