BAUSCH & Lomb is seeking 120 voluntary redundancies, equivalent to 10 per cent of its workforce, at its factory in Waterford.

The company said the job cuts were necessary to make its Waterford plant more competitive.

Bausch & Lomb manufactures soft contact lenses and other pharmaceutical products related to eyecare in Waterford for the global market.

It said there would be no reduction in output and the additional workload would be borne largely by additional automation.

A company spokesman said yesterday that a previous voluntary redundancy programme, in which 195 people left, had been oversubscribed and it hoped to complete the latest round of job cuts on a voluntary basis.

Should the number of applications fail to meet this target, Bausch & Lomb “would consider the matter again”, the spokesman said.

One of the main reasons for the redundancies is the sharp drop in manufacturing costs at Bausch & Lomb’s Rochester plant in New York state, helped by a steep decline in the value of sterling in recent months.

This has made the Waterford plant uncompetitive.

In addition to the job cuts the company is seeking significant cost savings, although neither wage cuts nor short-time working have been proposed.

Colum Honan, general manager of the Waterford plant, said he regretted it was necessary to seek further voluntary redundancies.

“We are committed to returning the Waterford facility to a position where it is once again the best-performing and most innovative plant owned by Bausch & Lomb,” Mr Honan said.

“We hope we can achieve this with the support of our employees through significant reduction of costs, improved productivity and more flexible working arrangements, while maintaining the highest standards of customer service, quality of product and innovation.”