AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL IRELAND has announced it will make some temporary layoffs due to what it describes as a “temporary cash flow crisis”.

In a statement this morning, trade union SIPTU said its members employed by Amnesty International Ireland were informed on Wednesday that the “majority of staff will be laid off from Friday, 6 September due to a financial crisis in the organisation”.

It called on the Board of Amnesty International Ireland to use “every means at its disposal to work to secure the employment of its staff in Ireland who are due to be laid off next month”.

SIPTU Organiser Karen Smollen said: “Amnesty International Ireland has stated that it will not be in a position to meet the payroll for its Irish operation from September into the foreseeable future.

“This is due to severe financial difficulties which the organisation has been working to address over the past number of years.”

Smollen said that SIPTU members employed by Amnesty last year took a “10% cut to their hours of work and their salaries as part of a recovery plan but this was not enough to meet the shortfall in finances”.

She added that members have been informed that a “voluntary redundancy is available”.

However, a spokesperson for Amnesty International Ireland said 11 of its 29 staff in Ireland will be impacted.

Of this, Amnesty said four will be placed on temporary lay-off and seven will be placed on reduced working hours. 

The Amnesty spokesperson added that the human-rights organisation made the “difficult decision” with “great regret”.

“This decision has not been taken lightly and – due to a temporary cash flow crisis – is immediate in nature.

“The temporary layoffs are part of a significant programme of transformation that has been adopted to secure the future of the human rights organisation here in Ireland.”

The temporary layoffs and reduced working hours will come into effect from 6 September.   

Amnesty added: “This decision is hugely regrettable but, having already made positive inroads on our path to recovery following a difficult few years financially, we will emerge from this period a stronger, more agile, more sustainable human rights organisation at a time when a fractious world needs our voice more than ever before.”