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TRADE UNIONS ARE asking for an explanation from Accenture after the multinational IT service and consultancy firm announced on Monday that 890 jobs are to be cut from its Irish staff.
The latest round of redundancies comes after almost 400 Irish-based Accenture employees lost their jobs in March.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), the Financial Services Union (FSU) and the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) have all called on Accenture to provide further detail regarding the nature of the layoffs as well as the reasons why its Irish staff have been affected more than others.
The latest round of layoffs represents almost 14 percent of the company’s Irish workforce of 6,500.
The unions have also demanded to know why there are still jobs in Ireland being advertised on Accenture’s website.
“As things stand the nature of the layoffs look like they’re going to be compulsory,” CWU spokesperson Ian McArdle told The Journal. He said that there has been no indication from Accenture that there will be a voluntary scheme.
He also pointed to the sheer scale of the layoff as reason to believe that the redundancies will not be voluntary.
As for the kinds of workers affected, McArdle said they are likely to be mainly content moderators, the people who assess and take down illegal or banned videos and images from social media sites.
As McArdle says, it can be “very challenging and very difficult work”.
“These are the people who keep the internet safe for the rest of us. They have to view what you might call the worst of humanity. It’s a tough job, they do it very well and unfortunately they are the people who are most likely in the scope for redundancy.
“So, we’re calling on Accenture to do the right thing.”
In a joint statement issued by the FSU and CWU, the two unions asked Accenture to “explain why they are aggressively targeting their Irish operation for redundancies and described it as ‘disproportionate to what is happening elsewhere’”.
Commenting on the announcement John O’Connell, general secretary of the FSU said that given the fact that the company is still recruiting for positions in Ireland, the unions “would like to understand the rationale behind these announcements and the reasons why Accenture have aggressively targeted their Irish operation for redundancies.
“An explanation is required for the staff who have shown loyalty to Accenture, and worked hard to contribute to the company’s growth and success. Our members raised concerns in relation to the last consultation process that went unanswered and have again contacted their Unions to ask for our help and support through the current consultation process.
“We are requesting immediate engagement with the company on this and other issues in relation to the consultation process.”
Sean McDonagh, general secretary of the CWU, described the situation for technology workers in general as “worrying and stressful” and called on the minister for trade, enterprise and employment Simon Coveney to be “proactive” in ensuring staff are treated fairly during the redundancy process.
“The CWU and the FSU are available to support our members and request that Accenture facilitate this fair and reasonable request on behalf of their staff,” he said.
“Staff are shocked and distraught at the news this week and to ask them to undertake a consultation process of this size, in these circumstances, is profoundly unfair. It places an overwhelming burden on the shoulders of ordinary workers at a time when they need additional support, not extra pressure.”
McDonagh added that the union understands the process of electing employee representatives is underway and that the timeframe for the consultation period has been set.
“To ensure a fair and transparent process Accenture needs to ensure that the employee representatives have professional representation via their trade unions at these consultation meetings.”
The joint statement also said that “both Unions insist that the redundancy process is a voluntary led approach. This is the practice in industrial relations in Ireland and we expect that Accenture will conform to what normally occurs in other sectors of the economy.”
Speaking in Cork today, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that the medium to long term outlook for the tech sector in Ireland remains positive, even if there is currently some “retrenching” and “downsizing” in the sector.
During a visit to the Apple plant in Hollyhill, Varadkar said that the tech sector had grown very rapidly during the pandemic.
“It is now retrenching a bit. Downsizing by about five or fifteen percent and I think that is still ongoing. But I am convinced in the medium to long term that we are going to see a lot more tech jobs in Ireland.
“Why do I think that? Because the future is digital. The future is artificial intelligence. The future is virtual reality. The future is robotics. There is only going to be more of that in the medium to long term.
“When I visit schools, and I talk to young people, I always encourage them to continue to study science, technology, engineering and maths precisely for that reason. Because this is going to be a growth sector in the medium to long term.”
Varadkar was asked about supports which could be given to laid off tech workers given that we are approaching the Budget this year with a surplus.
He said that the Government was monitoring the situation and planned to provide every support possible, whilst calling on companies who are downsizing to treat their employees fairly.
“Workers who get laid off are entitled to redundancy payments from their employer. What I am saying to companies that are downsizing, that are still profitable, that the basic redundancy of two weeks per year of service isn’t enough.
“We expect companies that are profitable, not withstanding the fact that they are downsizing, to offer much better exit packages for their employees and in fairness most of them are doing that.”
Varadkar was joined on the visit to the Apple plant on the northside of Cork City by minister Coveney and Cork North Central TD Colm Burke. Coveney was keen to emphasise that Ireland “is at full employment at the moment.”
“There have of course been some high profile layoffs in and by tech companies this year. From our experience in the Department of Enterprise those people have found employment very quickly elsewhere. Because they are highly skilled people.
He said that the Government would assist people in finding new work or going into education if necessary, adding that “in most cases they will be sought after by other companies.
He also pointed out that the tech sector has already announced around 12,000 new jobs in Ireland.
“So yes we have seen some reductions (in the tech sector) but we have also seen growth.”
- with additional reporting from Olivia Kelleher
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The unions doing a sterling job of absolutely zero, as usual. Union dues paying high wages for those at the top, but little help for the actual membership
The majority of these staff members are on working visas, Indians Turkish, south Americans , These companies treat these staff as despensible zero hour contractors . No rights good luck . Irish government let this happen.
@Big Beats: also they don’t pay any tax here and only moved from US to Ireland head quarters to avoid US taxes and not pay any here. they are generally a terrible company supported by fffg
@Big Beats: There are so many inaccuracies in this comment, it makes my brain hurt!
” … jobs in Ireland being advertised on Accenture’s website.” So it’s either:
1. They want to hire staff at cheaper rates, or
2. Their HR people are clueless.
(And it’s probably both).
@Earth Traveller: 3. They are DIFFERENT JOBS
@Earth Traveller: Or, there are areas within the business that they are cutting while still hiring for other departments. And those impacted by the layoffs can apply for the open roles. Standard enough practice in business.
The next 5 articles are comments closed / including bizarrely an article on Covid – has anybody in the journal got any legitimate reason for closing comments on a COVID article – hmmm how times have changed eh
@Dave Hammond: actually a total of 11 of last 18 journal articles are comments closed – that’s just ridiculously poor – is there any standard or editorial there controlling the flow of articles to be sure at least some are open for comments / the journal is bizarrely bringing on their own decline if they keep closing comments on articles at this level / it’s one of the few unique features they have as an Irish media organisation , kinda idiotic business imo
@Dave Hammond: week said Dave..nobodies allowed to disagree with the articles anymore or point out untruths.. the Harris article is typical… was updated to include an extra paragraph pushing Drews agenda as being in the best public interest… covid is a minefield these days.. the rainbow crossing?? I dunno anymore… sure what else is it…. the journal keeps getting worse and I keep reading the crap on it for some reason..
@Dave Hammond: you know you can post what you want when you want on a multitude of platforms and you’re not limited to the comments section of the journal?
@Anthony Curran: the journal is very popular and influential and when they print an article skewed in one direction in some people’s minds, they should be able to counter the argument or let their opinion be known in the comments section.. after all isn’t that what the comments section is for… asking people to search for other forums that won’t be read by a fraction of the people isnt a great solution ..
@Dave Hammond: why don’t you comment on another news site. Ohhh you can’t. I’m sure we’ll miss you.
@Anthony Curran: Yep I figured that ingenious piece of insight out all by myself – 12 years ago when I originally started posting comments on the Journal -when they didn’t close comment sections for every second or third article – try keep up will you…
Years ago as a grad student, Arthur Anderson now Accenture as a newish company, were doing the milk round recruiting. I asked them what is it they made, they said we make nothing – just money and planning. When all you do is count other people’s money and get well paid for it, we can expect more of these shenanigans.
@The Irish love this shy….: It’s called “Consultancy.” There are many business sectors that don’t “make” anything, e.g. Accountancy, Finance, Law. They provide what’s known as “services.”
@Iano C: Consultancy mehole. To who? Those who have it to waste it? That’s not sustainable. Not much of a service to nearly 1500 dumped workers now is it? And that’s only for the moment. If you work in this job my advice to you is to start retraining.
@The Irish love this shy….: maybe consultancy doesn’t suit you, but it certainly suits a lot of employees and/or contractors who can make a lot of money doing it. Lots of companies pay lots of money for these services. Whether they get value for money is another matter.
@Iano C: haha, on fire tonight
@SYaxJ2Ts: Fire is right. Consultancy on the whole is tech reliant in Ireland. With the exception of Intel which is manufacturing and even that has 133% dip in earnings compared to last year. Intel won’t invest anymore here. Already we’ve lost to other English speaking countries like Germany! Watch this space for your consultancy fatties. If you’re into this polite chatting with excel documents, you and Iano should set up your own firm. Warehousing on the Kylemore Road going cheap. Best of luck.
@The Irish love this shy….: Hmmmm, tech reliant, eh?! PWC, KPMG, Deloitte, and EY might beg to differ.
@SYaxJ2Ts: Not too shabby yourself ;) Yer man’s having a conniption over facts!
@The Irish love this shy….: you asked that question as a grad student?
CN I ask why the journal mods are turning off comments on a lot of posts lately? Absolutely no need for it. I got a comment removed because I said drew Harris should be sacked. As mods and by deleting my comment they are more or less in league of the government. Sorry for of topic comment
@Alan Scott: you don’t have to apologise for being “off topic” anymore – they close so many comments these days you need to speak out wherever ya can imo !
So it turn out letting right wing parties base our entire economy on foreign multinationals isn’t the best idea.
If only we’d had some previous experiences in this regard.
Oh wait, it’s the 1980s all over again.
At least our Green Party – quote unquote – is still able to get us a few dozen jobs guarding servers in the endless new data centres they’re signing off on.
@Chris O’Brien: FDI in Ireland is a huge part of our economy, like it or not. It’s nothing like the 80′s, ya mad yoke!
Jesus, an article that you’re allowed comment on!! Becoming like hens teeth! Lol
@Colette Kearns: hence my comment just above yours. It’s not real journalism. I was of it for a while and came back to see if anything changed, twitter is a much better outlet where government sponsored propaganda and are not penalised when you disagree with them.
@Colette Kearns: it’s beyond comical Collette – for the life Donne I can’t understand the Journal at all these days – literally making their own business less and less engaging which will lead to a decline in revenues and bring on inevitable down turn for their own business – bizarre
Unions…. In Ireland, total waste of time. Apart from the teachers unions, they’ve managed to get their longer standing members a great deal over the years. The nurses union seem an undercover group acting on behalf of the HSE/dept of Health.
@Eddie Garvey: agree in the main but there are plenty of strong unions that have secured good conditions for their members , Irish rail , Dublin bus , RTE , ESB , airline pilots , I’d say the fact we don’t hear too much about them is a sign they have secured good deals and use their leverage accordingly imo
There should be no employment without union membership..bosses will always abuse workers in the past, now and in the future. This is why Trump is the last true Socialist.
People before profit are all talk and band wagon jumpers
@Chief Of police Retired – Truther MAGA Trump 2024: Trump the billionaire 1% who inherited hundreds of millions from Daddy and doesn’t pay his suppliers ….hmm you might want to do a bit of research to educate yourself of the facts mister
@Chief Of police Retired – Truther MAGA Trump 2024: https://www.liunachicago.org/about-us/news/details/2147/anti-union-actions-by-the-trump-administration
Corporations and banks are the enemy of the people. Making the rich richer, while the comman man is fleeced to death, but told we never had it as good.
Stop voting for politicians who support this.
@GoodBrother: Yeah, I agree. Let’s get rid of all the corporations and banks. Back to tilling the land, 16 hours a day, 7 days per week! And storing our money under the mattress. Who do you suggest we vote for to make this utopia you speak of, a reality? It wouldn’t be SF by any chance now, would it?
Challenging and difficult for people, but not for AI. The Unions may actually have a future, but are they able to see it?
I meet coupe of Spanish guys working there on new year’s eve party
“What do You do there”
“watching Netflix”
@transik: Cool story, never happened.
Another multinational on the way out. Nice one ffg,
@calum Tierney: Who do you think brought them here in the first place? FF. And they’re hardly “on the way out.” It’s a percentage of their workforce, not all of it
welcome to America
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