Waterford To Shed 500 Staff

It has emerged that 500 jobs are likely to be lost at Waterford Crystal.

Workers' representatives have already been told to expect an announcement on restructuring at the plant.

It is understood that the falling price of the dollar has impacted badly on the profitability of Waterford Wedgwood products, which are heavily dependent on export to the US.

At the same time – in an echo of the situation at Seagate in Limavady, in Northern Ireland – where 900 jobs are being lost in favour of a Seagate facility in the Far East, it is also believed that up to half of the 1,000 jobs at the Waterford Crystal plant in Waterford City are to be outsourced to a company in Slovenia, which already manufactures part of the Waterford Crystal range.

Workers at the plant say they are resigned to the fact that between 450 and 500 job cuts will be made at the plant in the coming weeks.

"We're facing into a reality of significant redundancies of up to 500 workers," said Pat Fitzgerald, branch chairman of trade union UNITE, formerly the ATGWU.

Union officials have been given a specific list of 393 jobs at the plant, which they say management now want to shed.

Union reps met yesterday with management after staff voiced concerns about speculation that their jobs were to be outsourced to eastern Europe.

Last month the Waterford Wedgwood chairman, Sir Anthony O'Reilly, told the company's AGM that management would conduct a "root and branch overhaul of the company globally".

The company is now in talks with a major investor with a view to raising around €50m to finance the restructuring programme.

(BMcC)