Nortel Networks, the Canada-based telecommunications company, has designated its Irish sites at Galway and Monkstown, outside Belfast, as two of its seven "systems houses" in the first phase of a global restructuring plan designed to reduce its 75,000-strong workforce by 8,000 people, writes Eibhir Mulqueen.

The designations mean that the plants, which together employ 2,300, will not be sold off but instead will be "cornerstones of Nortel Networks' new manufacturing operations framework".

Nortel stated that about 1,000 jobs would be "eliminated" worldwide in this phase, with about 3,000 "identified for divestiture" through becoming employees of contract manufacturers.

Irish employee numbers will largely be unaffected, although 88 mechanical assembly workers out of Nortel's 1,300 employees in Belfast will be sub-contracted to a new employer.

Galway's plant, employing more than 900 people in customer solutions and configuration of information networks, and a small operation in Shannon, Co Clare, employing 80 people, will not be affected.