Almost 30 jobs to go at Ericsson in Athlone

Athlone's largest multinational employer, Ericsson, has announced it will be making up to 29 of its staff in the town redundant.

Details of the voluntary severance programme were communicated to staff at the company's Cornamaddy, Athlone, premises earlier today (Wednesday).

Staff will told that the voluntary redundancy programme "for SA Network Management employees" would "potentially impact up to 29 positions" among Eircsson's 1,350-strong Athlone workforce.

The voluntary redundancy programme opened today, with applications being accepted until Friday, February 6.

A message from management to staff stated: "While this is a difficult message to share, and step to take, I am confident it places us in a stronger position looking into the future of our business."

When contacted by the Westmeath Independent, a company spokesperson said a total of up to 35 employees would be impacted by the job losses across Ericsson's sites in Dublin and Athlone.

"These proposed staff reductions are part of global initiatives to improve our cost position, while maintaining investments critical to Ericsson’s technology leadership and execution of our strategy," said the company spokesperson.

Ericsson added that it "remains committed to Ireland and to our customers".

It emerged recently that, after being based for more than 50 years in Cornamaddy, Ericsson is planning to relocate to a "more modern" purpose-built premises at the IDA Business and Technology Park in Garrycastle, Athlone.

The company said in December that a "detailed architecture design" process for its new planned new home at the IDA park was getting underway.