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Vodafone Ireland announced about planned cuts of staff at the end of 2008. The Irish Communications Workers Union (CWU) confirmed last week it had discussed the prospect of redundancies with both parties in light of job cuts at Vodafone Ireland.



CWU said Vodafone Ireland will try to persuade 10% of staff to take voluntary redundancy because the job market has contracted with the economy. CWU's deputy general secretary Terry Delany said the union had met with Vodafone Ireland before Christmas and that employee forums are set to take place to discuss the impact of redundancies on various departments. According to him, more serious discussions are expected within the coming weeks. He also noted that before people were willing to take a voluntary package knowing they would find new employment soon but now people were reluctant because there were fewer jobs.

The company has released a statement saying: “Vodafone Ireland has commenced an organisational review of its operations in order to compete effectively in an increasingly challenging economic environment. The company is committed to working with the unions and employees throughout this period.”



Other telecommunications companies in Ireland, O2 Ireland and Meteor, said they have no staff redundancies scheduled for 2009. O2 Ireland made 45 redundancies in 2007 and outsourced its IT department, with 215 employees moving to IBM in July last year. Part of O2 Ireland’s network services will also be outsourced to BT Ireland at the end of January.