A further 50 staff at the Northern Irish operation of telecommunications firm Nortel Networks will lose their jobs following a decision by the firm to outsource printed circuit board assembly.

Nortel said yesterday it would outsource these activities to US firm SCI Systems as part of a strategy announced two years ago. Nortel has entered into a consultation process with staff at its Monkstown plant, which now employs some 1,300 people.

It has already shed about 900 staff at its plants in the Republic and Northern Ireland this year as it struggles to offset huge losses .