An Post is to close its loss-making SDS parcel delivery division in a move that could threaten up to 800 permanent and contract jobs, writes Barry O'Halloran.
It is understood that the State postal service operator's board decided to wind up SDS at a meeting yesterday.
However, a company spokesman refused to comment on the matter.
SDS employs 800 permanent and contract workers.
It was not known last night how many would lose their jobs as a result of the move.
However, the secretary general of the Communications Workers' Union (CWU), Mr Stephen Fitzpatrick, made it clear that he feared a majority, if not all of them, would be laid off.
The division has an 80,000 square foot warehouse on the Naas Road in Dublin and a depot in Athlone.
The properties are valued at over €20 million, and sources said yesterday that they would be sold to pay for the SDS workers' severance package.
The parcel delivery service has been losing money for some years, and at the same time has been dealing with increasing competition from the private sector. An Post is set to lose €30 million this year, and is currently negotiating a restructuring plan with its 10,400-strong workforce.
Last April, its chief executive, Mr Donal Curtin, warned that the company was on a financial knife edge, and would have to reduce its cost base if it was to survive.
The restructuring plan involves cutting 1,450 staff from its postal service, in addition to the SDS staff, through voluntary redundancy, early retirement and redeployment. In return, An Post is offering workers a 3 per cent pay rise, a €1,500 lump sum and a 14.9 per cent stake in the company through an employee share option plan.
This is currently the subject of union-management talks at the Labour Relations Commission.
However, Mr Fitzpatrick, indicated the plan to close SDS could jeopardise those negotiations.
He argued that the situation had evolved because An Post had deliberately run down elements of the division over the last year. The union will meet An Post senior management today to clarify the situation.
Mr Fitzpatrick told The Irish Times last night that it would then brief its members and consider its own position. The CWU represents the majority of An Post workers.
The news comes as 300 jobs were lost elsewhere yesterday when it emerged that the US owners of Unifi Textured Yarns (Europe) Ltd, are to wind down the firm over the next two months.