The Surfacemount Technology Centre in Cork (SMTC), which laid off more than 80 temporary employees a fortnight ago, has announced closure with the loss of a further 112 jobs.
SMTC's future had been in doubt since last month when its main customer, Simoco in the UK, began to experience serious trading difficulties.
The lay-off of temporary staff at the Cork plant was seen as an interim effort to overcome a rapidly deteriorating situation in the hope that a buyer would be found for Simoco and that the new owners would continue to do business with SMTC, which provides contract services to the electronics industry.
Two weeks ago an administrator was appointed to Simoco, and since then SIPTU, the main union at the Cork plant, had been kept closely in touch with efforts to sell the company.
Yesterday the union met Mr Cillian Feireatair, vice-president, European operations, at the Model Farm Road facility. At the meeting the hopelessness of SMTC's position was spelled out and, as expected, closure was announced because the company could not continue to trade. A liquidator is expected to be appointed today.
According to a SIPTU official, Ms Marie Kearney, SMTC behaved honourably throughout the recent difficulties and kept both staff and the union informed from the outset.
"These were very difficult circumstances for everyone, and I think it only to fair to say the company behaved very honourably. There's no bad feeling on the part of the employees even though their jobs are gone," she added.
It is understood that a redundancy package was negotiated for the latest employees to lose their jobs.
Meanwhile, Limerick-based Flextronics said it was seeking 130 redundancies from its workforce of 500. A further 40 redundancies will be sought from contract staff. The company, which supplies networking products to the telecommunications and IT industries, said the lay-offs would be voluntary. It blamed a downturn in the high-tech sector.