Seagate Technology, the world's largest independent maker of computer disk drives, will cut 10,000 jobs or about 10 per cent of its workforce over the next three months in an attempt to stem mounting losses.

Most of the job losses - more than 7,000 - will occur in Asia, where Seagate has extensive manufacturing operations in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and China. In the US, the company will trim about 1,300 jobs. The previously announced closure of its plant in Clonmel with the loss of 1,400 jobs is included in the worldwide restructuring.

Meanwhile, the company says it will honour in full commitments to make ex gratia redundancy payments to the vast majority of its 1,100 employees in Clonmel, who are being let go over the next three months. A company spokesman was commenting on a report in yesterday's Irish Times that employees who left early might forfeit all of the redundancy package on offer. He said misapprehension might have arisen among employees from the explanatory leaflet the company had issued outlining its redundancy package, in which there had been an error.