15/01/2009

Pay Cuts And 'Bankruptcy' Highlight Job Fears

As news that around a third of employees at a high-tech company in Londonderry are to receive a pay cut of 10% in an effort to save their jobs as the global recession hits sales, there has been more gloomy news from a similar firm in Co Antrim.

While around 300 people in the Springtown premises of Seagate Technologies will now be bringing home a smaller pay packet, there are fears for the future of Nortel jobs in County Antrim following the news that the telecoms giant has applied for bankruptcy protection.

The Canadian firm announced the move was "a step towards a global reorganisation" and while it expected day-to-day operations to continue without interruption - there remain fears over furture job prospects.

Nortel employs 550 people at Monkstown, Newtownabbey, and 300 in Galway.

The Monkstown plant opened in the 1960s as a Standard Telephone and Cables manufacturing facility, which was bought by Nortel in 1992.

More than 2,000 people worked at the Monkstown plant at its peak in 2000, but it has been hit by a series of redundancies.

Under US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection law, a firm can keep trading while it aims to sort out its finances.

(BMcC/JM)

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