Intel prepares for surge in applications for lucrative exit packages at Irish operation

Chip giant Intel’s Irish plant is preparing to deal with a rush of applications from staff to leave the business by a deadline on Friday.
Management at the Leixlip plant in Co Kildare has formed a group to decide on who would be allowed go in the event of too many staff applying. That has been taken as an indication there has been considerable interest in the schemes.
A number of those working for the company said there appeared to be strong interest in the early retirement package, with many considering the money on offer being too good to pass up.
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Intel is offering both voluntary redundancy and early retirement options to staff as the parent group looks to cull 15 per cent of its headcount globally. In consultations with local staff, there has been no suggestion that the scheme here will differ from that global target. Intel has not indicated to the workforce specifically how many redundancies it is seeking in the Irish business.
About 5,000 people are employed by the company here, and the voluntary scheme is open to about 4,000 of those. That would mean between 600 and 750 leaving the Irish business. A significant portion of the company’s workforce here is involved in international teams comprised of colleagues across a number of locations.
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Staff have been told in recent days that those who have had their applications approved will be informed after September 11th, with many set to depart on September 30th.
Aside from redundancy, the company is offering the option of early retirement for staff who meet or exceed the number 75 when combining their age and length of service in a package that is also said to include the early maturation of share-related benefits.
The company has offered redundancy terms of five weeks’ pay for each year of service plus two weeks’ statutory redundancy, with a cap of 104 weeks or €500,000, whichever is lower. Staff with fewer than two years’ service would receive a minimum of five weeks’ pay but not the statutory element.
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Other proposed economies include cuts to staff benefits with many people at the Irish operation set to lose car allowances of between €13,000 and €15,000 from the start of next year.
Intel has only recently invested €17 billion at its Leixlip site in Co Kildare, adding a new cutting-edge chip manufacturing plant – Fab 34 – which doubled the tech giant’s Irish manufacturing space and saw it take on an extra 1,600 staff.