DUNDALK WAS dealt a major jobs blow in June 2011 after Vodafone confirmed it would be ‘outsourcing’ Irish operations, leading to the loss of 71 jobs in town.
Staff at the Vodafone call centre on the Ramparts hit out at the way in which the job cuts were announced, after they received an email confirming the company’s plans.
The Vodafone staff, and those employed by the recruitment agency Rigney Dolphin, learned that the company were moving a large part of their operations to Egypt and India,
Vodafone confirmed that in Dundalk, 29 direct employees and another 42 contracted by Rigney Dolphin would be affected.
Workers were left in limbo, not knowing when the redundancies would come into effect, and it took months of negotiations with unions before any settlement was reached.
Despite ongoing efforts by staff, and a huge appeal locally to Vodafone to retain workers, the first redundancies began in December, with the second group of employees expected to leave at the end of January.
Workers leaving even made a direct appeal to US company PayPal to locate their new 1,000 seater customer contact centre in Dundalk, citing the huge level of relevant experience which will be available in Dundalk following the redundancies.
It had been reported that Dundalk was in the shake-up with Limerick, which has suffered badly with the loss of hundreds of Dell jobs, for the investment, but by the end of the year no decision had been made as to where the mega-jobs operation would be located.
Source: Argus
