Londonderry: More than 100 jobs to be cut at Seagate factory

It's believed 116 people will be affected

More than 100 staff at Seagate Technology in Londonderry are to be made redundant, BBC News NI understands.

Speculation had been mounting for weeks that there would be job losses at the Springtown factory as part of a global restructuring operation by the company.

It is believed 116 people will be affected, out of a total workforce of 1,400.

Some managers had already been informed they are to take a pay cut of 10%.

A spokesperson for Seagate said it was one of the most difficult decisions its management team had to make.

The data storage company is one of the north west's biggest employers.

Opened in 1993, the factory produces a tiny specialised part for hard drives called a recording head.

Seagate said previously that it was in the middle of a global restructuring progress.

It said the restructuring was "in response to changes in macroeconomic and business conditions", and it expected the process to be "substantially completed by the end of the current quarter".

In a statement on Thursday, Seagate said: "Our goal is to take these next steps in a thoughtful manner and work collectively with employees.

"Seagate has more than 30 years of investment and partnership in NI, establishing the facility as a world leading resource in nano-manufacturing and technology research."

"The team continues to play a significant role as we invest in mass capacity data solutions driving our future growth."

In a statement, Unite the Union described the job losses at the Springtown site as unnecessary and unjustified.

"There's no real justification for redundancies or attacks on workers' pay," Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said.

"It seems that while workers must pay the price of short-term production problems there are no issues with paying out large dividends to shareholders."