INTEL, the computer chip manufacturers, does not recognise unions but it may have to come to terms with dissident employees on the Internet. They have established in California a group called FACEINTEL (Former And Current Employees of Intel) and a website where they can be found by similarly minded people.

The motto of the group is "The price of justice is eternal publicity". Its mission statement is not so much to go boldly beyond where any Intel employee has gone before but, more prosaically, "to influence the human resource policies and practices" of the company.

More particularly, FACEINTEL wants to "create true long-term employment opportunities at Intel". The group claims, on its website, that many computer engineers at Intel suffer burn-out at an early stage.

It also says that the middle aged, people with disabilites and members of ethnic minorities are discriminated against by the company. FACEINTEL only has a membership of ten. Nine of these are aged more than 40, five suffer from a medical disability and some are members of ethnic minorities.

Their spokesman, Mr Kourosh (Ken) Hamidi, has sued the company, unsuccessfully, for alleged injury to his psyche arising out of his employment by Intel. A number of other members of FACEINTEL have also filed civil suits.

The group says: "Our primary goal is to expose and help put an end to Intel's discriminatory and predatory employment practices." FACEINTEL was established last year and claims already to have influenced company policy. For example, it says that until late 1996 middle managers were expected to identify the lowest performing 10 per cent of workers and take corrective measures, up to and including disciplinary action. That figure has now been reduced to five per cent.

Its main complaint, however, is that Intel's personnel policies lead to burn-out among employees. It quotes Intel's president, Mr Craig Barrett, as saying computer engineers only have a half-life of a few years. In support of its claim it says that the average age of Intel employees in 1996 was 30, the same as 1990.

Intel strongly denies FACEINTEL's claims. It says it does not discriminate against any group within the workforce. It has guidelines for managers to prevent discrimination and the Irish subsidiary at Leixlip has won the "Positive to Disability Award" from the Rehabilitation Board.

The low average age is explained by the rapid expansion of the company, it says. Since 1990 the workforce has increased from 21,000 to 57,000.

Since it began production in Ireland in 1990, the company has recruited 3,500 people locally, of whom 80 per cent are under 23 and only one per cent over 40. "That figure alone is enough to reduce the average age across the company," says an Intel spokesman Mr Liam Cahill.

He says Mr Barrett was quoted out of context. The president was simply referring to the fact that computer engineers need to retrain and update their skills about once every five years to keep pace with developments.

Mr Cahill also denies that managers are required to single out a fixed percentage of low performers. He says that ranking and rating systems are widespread across the industry. Recruits are of very high calibre and if people subsequently underperform the aim is to help them, not fire them.

Intel has a very low turnover of employees, he says. In June 1996, when 234 temporary workers were let go because of market conditions, 90 per cent were found other jobs. Fifty of them returned to Intel when new vacancies arose, Mr Cahill said. This was hardly a symptom of an unhappy workplace.

Starting pay is well above average, he says. It ranges from £13,000 to £23,000, depending on qualifications and experience. Various extras, like share schemes and performance-based bonuses, add at least 80 per cent to basic rates.

On Intel's anti-union stance, Mr Cahill says, the company had had a non-union culture since it was set up in 1968. "From day one we hired the best people. We aimed for high flyers," he says. "They are not the kind of people who raise demands for union membership or representation."

There was an employee information service at Intel, a dedicated employee relations staff and an ombudsperson to ensure procedures were operated fairly, he added.

Asked what the company would do if an employee requested to be represented by a union, or if the current review group on trade union recognition came out in favour of stronger union representational rights, Mr Cahill said these were hypothetical questions.

For anyone interested in contacting FACEINTEL website the address is http:// www.igc.apc.org.faceintel. The email address is: face@quiknet.com.