Layoffs begin at Intel Leixlip plant

Intel staff based at its flagship Leixlip plant will start to leave the company on Friday as part of its global round of redundancies.

The first round of departures, based on shift-patterns, will begin today, with most of the rest that are exiting the group expected to depart by the middle of next week, according to sources.

However, as of yet, the group has not communicated the total number of job cuts in this country as part of a global programme to shed 12,000 positions, equivalent to about 11 per cent of its workforce.

There were indications last month that between 350 and 400 staff and contractors, spread across operations in Leixlip, Cork and Shannon, Co. Clare, would leave the company under the plan. Applying the planned global job cuts on a pro-rata basis would have meant more than 550 job cuts.

Departing staff, a large portion of whom are in middle management positions, are being offered five weeks’ salary for every year of service on top of statutory entitlement to two weeks’ pay.

While payoffs are being capped at two years’ salary, most leaving the company are being paid until the end of August in lieu of notice, source said. In addition, many will receive additional healthcare cover, with pension top-ups for departing workers over 55 years of age, they said.

A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment.

The Santa Clara, California-based technology giant unveiled its global redundancy plan in April against the backdrop of declining demand for personal computers. The group’s focus is moving towards cloud computing, which allows data to be stored and accessed online.

Ahead of the announcement, Intel had 4,500 employees and about 700 long- term contract workers in Ireland, mainly in the chipmaker's largest site in Europe, outside Leixlip, Co Kildare. Some 250 people worked at a research and development facility in Shannon, and a further 350 in Cork.