EMPLOYMENT CRISIS:MORE THAN 600 job losses were announced by firms including Ericsson, Ryanair and Chartbusters in Dublin, Shannon, Monaghan and the northeast yesterday.
A further 300 job losses for sub-contractors were announced by aviation firm Bombardier in Belfast.
The biggest single loss in the Republic was at telecoms firm Ericsson Ireland, which said it was laying off 300 workers at its Clonskeagh campus in Dublin.
In Shannon, Ryanair said it was cutting services to the airport which would result in the loss of 100 jobs. The airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, blamed the Government’s “insane and suicidal” €10 travel tax for a fall in passenger numbers in the west and said he had no choice but to reduce aircraft, routes and flights from the end of March.
The knock-on effect could see the loss of another 700 support staff, he added.
However, the Shannon Airport Authority said it did not accept that Ryanair could avoid its contractual agreement with the airport by blaming the Government travel tax. It said Ryanair had availed of “an extremely attractive”aircraft incentive scheme to deliver agreed targets at Shannon over a five-year period.
Pobal, a not-for-profit organisation which manages Government and EU programmes, also confirmed that it was in the process of making 90 staff redundant.
It has secured a reduction of more than 60 posts through a recruitment freeze and voluntary means. The Labour Relations Commission is chairing talks concerning the final 30 redundancies.
The northeast was hit with 44 job losses yesterday when grain company Drummonds announced it was closing its six branches in Clonee, Navan, Kells, Drogheda, Ardee and Knockbridge in Dundalk. Five of the six will be closed by June 30th and the remaining branch in Drogheda will close on October 30th. Its Enfield branch closed in recent weeks.
The Greencore-owned company said the ceasing of Drummonds’s operations followed a review of the viability of the business.
A further 34 job losses were announced in Co Monaghan by Combilift which manufactures forklifts. The company employs more than 230 at Milltown.
Also yesterday the Commercial Court heard that 60 Chartbusters employees were to lose their jobs as part of a survival scheme.
Seven loss-making stores will close this week and another 10 will close within a fortnight. Chartbusters employs 267 people in its home entertainment stores.
At Ericsson, Siptu organiser Peter Glynn warned that the union would be opposing any attempt to introduce compulsory job cuts. “It would appear an opportunist move to drive down costs, regardless of the consequences for the workers,” he said.
Canadian aerospace giant Bombardier said it planned to axe 1,360 jobs across its facilities in Montreal, Wichita and Belfast.
Confirming 300 subcontracted job losses in the North, Bombardier said it had felt the impact of the worldwide economic slowdown through “a greater than usual level of deferrals and cancellations” for its business aircraft.