There was mixed news for Ireland on the employment front yesterday with Deutsche Bank announcing plans to recruit 700 additional staff over the next four years while Lufthansa Technik Airmotive Ireland, which employs over 400 staff in Rathcoole, Co Dublin at an aircraft engine maintenance facility, is threatened with close.
The Lufthansa news emerged shortly after Germany’s Deutsche Bank revealed its major expansion plan, which is supported by the IDA. This is the biggest jobs announcement by the IDA so far this year and will involve Deutsche Bank consolidating its operations here at a new 100,000 sq ft office in Eastpoint Business Park.
The German bank has signed a 15-year lease, which will cost it €90 million to €100 million. Deutsche Bank will expand its existing group technology and operations unit, and global transaction banking business, currently based at separate offices in Dublin.
It plans to create a regional hub and centre of excellence in Dublin, which is believed to have secured this investment ahead of other Deutsche Bank locations around the world.
Recruitment will begin next year with the majority of posts filled in 2015 and 2016. The bank expects to conclude the hiring programme in 2017.
Commenting on its expansion plans, Nelius De Groot, head of financial institutions and securities sales and UK / Ireland for global transaction banking, said: "This announcement is about continued investment in Ireland."
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton said the announcement by Deutsche Bank was a "huge vote of confidence" for the financial services sector in Ireland and in the economy.
Speaking to The Irish Times, IDA chief executive Barry O’Leary said the announcement followed years of “persistence and patience” by the agency in courting Deutsche Bank. “It has paid off now,” he added.
In a statement yesterday afternoon, Lufthansa said it was “to commence a process to consider closing the company, subject to consultation with employee representatives”.
The company said it would begin immediate negotiations with its three trade unions - TEEU, Siptu and Unite - and other employee representatives. It said the move followed an extensive review of operations at the company “in the context of declining revenues and shrinking international market opportunities”.
Managing director Wolfgang Moerig maintained that the increased quality and efficiency of the new generations of aircraft engines reduced the need for overhaul.
Willie Quigley, regional organiser of the trade union Unite, said: "Starting on Monday, the focus of Unite and the other unions will be on exploring all possible avenues to secure the future of the plant as it currently stands, or - failing that - to secure the future of Lufthansa Technik Automotive with a reduced workforce. We are assuming that the company will engage in constructive and meaningful negotiations to that end.
“If, despite all efforts by both unions and management to secure the future of these jobs, it is decided that closure is inevitable, we will re-commence consultations with a view to securing the best possible outcome for the workers, not only in terms of a redundancy package, but also in terms of securing workers’ pension entitlements.”
Siptu organiser, Karl Byrne, said: "There are 88 Siptu members affected. As part of the thirty day consultation period, trade union representatives will meet the management of the company on Monday to discuss any measures that might be taken to save as many jobs as possible."
Arthur Hall, Acting General Secretary of the TEEU, called on the Government to "set up a special taskforce to try and find an alternative buyer for the plant and to assist those affected to a gateway to re-enter the labour-market workforce".
Aer Lingus set up Airmotive Ireland in 1980. Lufthansa Technik acquired a 60 per cent shareholding in 1997, and took full ownership in 1999.
Employees' reaction
Workers at Lufthansa's engine maintenance plant in Rathcoole were ashen-faced as they left the plant yesterday. "I saw a young fella in his 20s, a second-year mechanic, in tears," said Dave Patterson (46) as he described the reaction of the 400-strong workforce to news that the company proposed to close the plant. "Fellas like me, I have 29 years working here, fellas of 46 or 47, we are on the scrap heap."
But he said for the younger workers the future was just as bleak, with only the hope of emigration offering a working life. He had known the intake book was practically empty for November and December, but staff had been told management were hopeful about a pick-up in work, he said.
Following yesterday’s announcement shortly after lunchtime, many of the workers left the sprawling complex in their cars, most reluctant to stop and talk to the media at the main gate.
William Quigley, the chairman of the employee works council which represents workers in a number of unions, said the “crucial question” was whether the company could be persuaded to remain in operation.
