Almost 500 jobs cut from two Northern Ireland companies
Almost 500 job cuts have been announced in Northern ireland this morning.
Aircraft manufacturer Bombardier is shedding almost 300 jobs at its Belfast plant.
The Canadian company said the 280 redundancies were needed to make the company competitive in the long term.
Bombardier has been involved in a bitter international trade dispute with Boeing over the sale of its C- Series jets in the US - a row that has seen Prime Minister Theresa May lobbying President Donald Trump on multiple occasions.
It is unclear whether the dispute is a main factor in the latest round of redundancies.
Around a quarter of the 4,000 workforce in Belfast work on the C-Series, manufacturing the wings, and unions have been warning of pressures on other areas of Bombardier's work away from the C-Series.
Recent decisions by the US authorities to impose a huge 300% duty on C-Series jets being sold in the US did raise job fears in Belfast.
But those had receded somewhat when the Canadian firm struck a deal that saw US manufacturer Airbus acquire 50.01% of the C-Series programme. That move will see jets assembled within the US, in a bid to avoid the import tariffs.
Around 1,000 jobs were lost at Bombardier plant in Belfast last year as part of a global restructuring operation. Another 95 job losses were announced last month.
Announcing the latest redundancies, the company said: "Following the 7,500 global workforce reductions announced by Bombardier Inc last October, we continue to review our manpower requirements in Belfast and regret to confirm that we must reduce our workforce levels by around 280. Those impacted will be functional support personnel, including managers and professional staff.
"We acknowledge the impact this will have on our workforce and their families and we continue to explore opportunities to help mitigate the number of compulsory redundancies.
"However, we need to continue to cut costs and improve the efficiency of our operations to help ensure our long-term competitiveness."
A further 200 jobs are under threat after a manufacturing company announced a proposal to shut its Northern Ireland plant.
Schlumberger, which constructs equipment used in the oil and gas industry, is to consult with unions and employees about the proposed closure of its plant in Newtownabbey.
The multinational company blamed an ongoing slump in the sector.
"Due to the current prolonged downturn in the Oil and Gas industry, Schlumberger's manufacturing plants globally are underutilised and the company is considering a proposal to cease manufacturing, assembly and test activities in its Belfast plant during 2018," said Schlumberger in a statement.
"We completely understand the impact of this announcement on our employees and the local community.
"This is only a proposal at this stage and we will be conducting consultation with the union and our employee representatives to make every effort to try and mitigate as much as possible the impact on our employees.
"The oil and gas industry is going through the most severe downturn of the past 30 years with operators significantly reducing their investment.
"This is severely impacting technology services companies like Schlumberger.
"Between 2014 and 2016, Schlumberger's revenue was reduced by nearly half and unfortunately, we do not see yet any sustainable recovery.
"This scenario means, that to adapt to the new realities of the market, we need to restructure our production footprint."
