BNY Mellon has announced the closure of its facility in Wexford with about 300 jobs impacted.
The global financial firm employs about 310 employees at its offices in the Drinagh Business Park on the outskirts of the town. There had been widespread reports over recent days that jobs at the firm were in jeopardy.
These fears were confirmed on Tuesday following a meeting between management and staff where the company announced that it was closing its Wexford office.
BNY Mellon established a presence in Ireland in 1994 and services global clients from its offices in Dublin, Cork and Wexford. It is believed that the Cork and Dublin offices are not affected by these developments.
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“At BNY we continually evaluate our real estate footprint to ensure we are operating efficiently. We are intending to close our Wexford office. We remain committed to serving our clients and relationships in the Irish market and internationally,” the company said on Tuesday.
The finance company said it would not be commenting during the employee collective consultations process,. but it is understood around five per cent of the Wexford workforce will be offered the chance to work remotely, with the remaining 95 per cent being told their jobs would be relocated or they would be made redundant.
The Financial Services Union have called on BNY Mellon to treat staff with respect and to explore all options to minimise job losses.
“The confirmation by the bank that 300 jobs are at risk follows months of rumours that drastic change was being contemplated. Staff and their families as well as local business will be shocked by this announcement. The next few weeks will be challenging for everyone involved and I would urge BNY Mellon and the Government to utilise this time to provide necessary supports to the affected employees,” general secretary of the union, John O’Connell, said.
Wexford Labour TD, George Lawlor, said the situation was an appalling one for the workforce.
“The manner in which the staff have been treated here is appalling. The rumours have been circulating for months about this, and to announce today that less than five per cent will work from home and some of the rest will be offered redundancy, and some of the remaining workforce will be asked to relocate to Dublin if they have an Ireland only contract. It is a huge blow to the workers and their families and a huge blow to the Wexford economy,” he said.
“I will certainly be calling on the newly instated enterprise minister, whoever he or she may be, to come to Wexford to meet, in the first instance, with the BNY management here locally and then globally, to discuss the situation, because it would appear that Cork or Dublin are not affected by this.” he added.
Commenting on the closure, the Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said on Monday: “Our thoughts are with the affected workers at this difficult time and I can confirm that all available supports from Government and from our agency the IDA will be made available to impacted staff.”
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