A TELECOMMUNICATIONS company with a large operating base in Limerick has confirmed it is to cut up to 150 jobs nationwide.
Three Ireland, which employs over 450 people at its Limerick office alone, has confirmed that between 130 and 150 jobs will be affected by an upcoming round of redundancies.
It’s not yet clear how many of these job losses will impact Limerick.
The company said in a statement that it had made “the difficult decision to enter a proposed collective redundancy process for the business”.
The company added that it had implemented “a number of measures in a bid to reduce operating costs”, but that the business still faced “challenges”.
“However, the business continues to experience commercial performance challenges, with lower earnings and margin growth year on year, as operating costs continue to increase,” a statement from Three Ireland said.
According to Three Ireland, the cuts will position the business “on a stronger platform for the future, ensuring it can maintain its market leading position and will enable growth”.
It’s understood staff were informed on Thursday by a briefing via video call.
Consultations on the redundancies will begin immediately, with the staff involved expected to be informed in around six weeks.
Limerick Sinn Féin TD and Chairman of the Oireachtas Enterprise, Trade, and Employment Committee, Maurice Quinlivan, said that government agencies must step in to help if jobs are to be lost.
“If it is a case that jobs are lost, then the Department of Enterprise must work with IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to understand the skills profile of impacted staff and ensure that profiles are shared with client companies of all state agencies who may be hiring or looking for similar skills,” the Limerick TD said.
“This situation reinforces the need for all workers to join, and be active, in their trade union. Workers need a strong voice in the workplace and the only way to achieve this is through trade unionism.
“The workers in Three Ireland must be the priority here and it is imperative that the government stands up for them,” he concluded.
