LAST UPDATE | 31 Jul 2023

ACCENTURE IS TO make around 890 employees at its Irish operation redundant.

The layoffs, which have been in the pipeline since March, represent almost 14 per cent of the Irish headquartered management consultancy multinational’s Irish workforce of 6,500.

Accenture specialises in IT and consultancy services and the New York-listed group has a 738,000-strong global employee base.

A spokesperson from Accenture said: “We continue to focus on ensuring we have the right talent to serve our clients and run our business today and tomorrow.

“In March, we initiated a series of actions to streamline our operations, including the departure of around 2.5% of our current global workforce.

“We will be commencing a collective employee consultation for a proposed redundancy programme that is expected to affect around 890 people at Accenture in Ireland. We do not plan to comment further while the consultation process is ongoing.”

The spokesperson added that the business continues to show “strong performance” in Ireland and the company is focused on having the “right talent” for its clientele. 

“We remain firmly committed to our business in Ireland and will continue managing for the long-term,” the spokesperson concluded.

The move comes after Accenture announced in March that it was cutting 400 jobs in Ireland, as it scales back its worldwide workforce.

‘Crushing blow’

In reaction to the announcement Sinn Féin TD Louise said the lay-offs are “another crushing blow for workers, their families and communities” and labelled them a “worrying sign of continuing volatility in the sector”.

“It is essential that Accenture engage quickly and in good faith with the workers and their representatives regarding this announcement and fair redundancy package,” O’Reilly added.

The party’s Enterprise, Trade and Employment spokesperson added that the lay-off “reinforces” the need for trade unions and encouraged workers to join and “be active” within the organisations.

O’Reilly also called on Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney to “take stock of the breadth and scale of job losses across the sector, and investigate how many of those who have lost their jobs are being reemployed”.

The job losses at Accenture add to a wider cull across the corporate and technology sectors, with Amazon, Facebook owner Meta, jobs website Indeed, and computing giant Salesforce recently announcing more hefty cuts.

Additional reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill