Crunch time for tech workers

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

THE growing global economic downturn dealt fresh blows to technology workers across Britain today. It also brought gloom to investment bank staff in the City of London.

US electronics giant Motorola was first with the bad news when it confirmed plans to close its Bathgate plant in Scotland where more than 3,000 workers make mobile phones.

Then American-owned fibre optics company JDS Uniphase announced that it will close factories in Bracknell, Berkshire, Hillend in Fife and Oxford with the loss of 515 jobs. Later it revealed that a further 400 jobs would go in Plymouth, cutting its workforce there by half.

Troubled US telecoms equipment provider Lucent Technologies is to axe jobs at its operations in Swindon, Wiltshire, where it employs 1,800 people. An unspecified number will be cut.

And in business, leading investment bank Morgan Stanley Dean Witter has started telling 1,500 of its staff worldwide they have lost their jobs. Sources close to Morgan Stanley said the axe would fall at its Canary Wharf office in east London, but were unclear as to how many staff would be cut in Britain. The bank declined to comment.

Motorola, which blamed a worldwide decline in demand for cellphones, said the closure plans could affect all employees at Bathgate, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, although it had made no final decision on the number of job losses. It added that no other Motorola UK facilities were affected.

The layoffs are part of a wider cost-cutting regime involving 22,000 job cuts globally as the Chicago-based company struggles to stave off the effects of the economic downturn.

The Bathgate plant was granted a last-minute stay of execution two weeks ago following personal intervention by Tony Blair. A complete shutdown would deal a devastating blow at the heart of Silicon Glen, the 50-mile corridor running between Edinburgh and Glasgow that forms the backbone of Scotland's modern economy.

Motorola said that intened to remain 'a major force in the UK electronics sector in the future'. This afternoon, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said the company would now be required to repay £16.5m of regional aid.

The cutbacks announced by JDS Uniphase are part of 5,000 job losses across the company, which will reduce its global workforce by 20%. The California-based firm said the cuts reflected its commitment to remain the industry leader during the current business downturn.

Lucent Technologies unveiled its job cuts after announcing a startling $3.7bn (£2.56bn) loss in the three months to 31 March on sales down 17% to $5.9bn. The group, which is axeing 10,000 jobs globally by July and 2,000 contractors, said the job losses here were part of its plans to cut about 6% of its 17,000-strong European workforce.

• 3M is to cut 500 British jobs as part of a global retrenchment programme in which 5,000 staff will go. The US group, whose products include Scotch tape and Post-It notes, has 18 UK sites, including one near Swansea in South Wales, Loughborough, and a head office at Bracknell, Berkshire.

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