Nortel Networks employees in Ireland face an anxious wait to discover if the next round of job cuts in the Canadian telecommunications group will have any impact on them.
Trade union officials in the North said yesterday they had received no update from the group, which employs 2,000 people there. No further clarification has been forthcoming regarding the future of Nortel Network's 750 employees in the Republic.
Nortel Networks last week announced plans to axe a further 10,000 jobs from its global workforce on top of the 20,000 it had previously earmarked for redundancy earlier in the year.
The group has warned that it expected a net second-quarter loss of $19.2 billion (€22.4 billion) arising from charges incurred in the restructuring of the company.
The group manufactures telecommunications transmission equipment including fibre-optic equipment at its plant in Monkstown on the outskirts of Belfast. The plant is focused on the group's optical Internet business and has a strong research and development component.
According to Prof Terri Scott from the University of Ulster, the Canadian group is an "icon" in the North and plays a vital role in stimulating local research and development projects.
Prof Scott said: "Nortel is a key driver in the Northern Ireland economy and has been a significant contributor to multimillion pound research and development programmes. Any retraction of its operations would have a significant impact in Northern Ireland."
