Boston staff keep fingers crossed on further cuts

Date Published: 11-Feb-2010

Employees at the Boston Scientific plant in Ballybrit Industrial Estate are keeping their fingers crossed that they can escape the brunt of a further 1,300 job cuts across the company worldwide – that announcement is separate to the 175 jobs already lost in Galway this week.

However, sources within the company last night believed that Galway would not be affected by the global jobs announcement.In the US on Wednesday evening, Boston Scientific announced major restricting that would see 1,300 jobs cut throughout the company. The news came as the company posted a loss of just over $1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2009.

The announcement is not connected to the 175 cuts which were announced on Monday afternoon at the Ballybrit plant.

Paul Donovan, the US company’s Vice President of Corporate Communications, was not available for comment at the time of going to press, but it has been confirmed to the Galway City Tribune that the 175 redundancies are not part of the 1,300 cuts announced.

Galway West TD Michael D Higgins has warned that the losses this week are adding to an already “dire” jobless situation here.The Labour Party President said the 175 job losses highlights the need for an action plan to tackle job losses.

At a series of meetings between management and staff representatives on Monday, the shock news was delivered that between 170 and 175 jobs will be lost at the Boston Scientific plant in the Ballybrit Industrial Estate.

A spokesperson for the company has confirmed to the Galway City Tribune that consultations are continuing between management and staff representatives.However, she said it was too early to say when the staff cuts will be implemented or the exact numbers of full-time, part-time and contract workers that will be laid off.

Full story on page 1 of this week’s Galway City Tribune