From the Galway City Tribune – More than 50 jobs are set to be cut at the Mervue base of cloud communications company Avaya.

The American multi-national confirmed in a statement to the Galway City Tribune that it is to “streamline the workforce in our Ireland operation”, resulting in the reduction of its 330-strong workforce in Mervue Business Park.

A redundancy programme is underway at the communications giant as a consultation between management and staff seeks to negotiate packages for departing employees.

A spokesperson for Avaya (formerly Nortel) said in a statement that as part of its “business optimisation” programme, it was seeking cost savings and as a result, “it’s necessary to build a more agile and innovative organisation”.

“The decision is no reflection on the dedicated and hardworking 330 employees at the Galway hub who we are supporting during this process. Avaya Galway is a strategic hub within our organisation’s overall global community and we look forward to exploring further investment in the future.”

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The news that future investment has not been ruled out comes as cold comfort to staff at the plant – the Galway City Tribune understands they were considering industrial action in the wake of the announcement.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and IDA Ireland had been notified of the redundancy process, the Avaya spokesperson said.

“We do not anticipate these redundancies will have any impact on customers and Avaya remains committed to our long-range innovation and product development roadmaps. Our goal remains to seamlessly provide our customers with outstanding communications solutions and support.

“We are also committed to treating impacted colleagues with utmost dignity and respect and will support them through this period.”