Updated 11pm
EMPLOYEES AT STANLEY Black & Decker’s shared services office in Cork have been told that their roles will be moved to Warsaw in September.
Management informed staff of its decision several weeks ago but no public announcement has been made.
Some 32 accountants are set to lose their full-time jobs, and some employees are now in the process of training their replacements who have arrived from Poland.
One staff member told TheJournal.ie that employees were told that the company was moving its operations to Warsaw as a cost saving measure.
The morale is pretty low. It’s bad enough losing your role, but then training in your replacement?
In 2011, the year after the merger of Stanley Tools and Black and Decker, ten low level accountancy positions were moved from the office in Cork to Poland.
The employee said that remaining staff were not worried about facing a similar fate at that time as they were “reassured” their positions were safe as they required a higher level of expertise.
Salaries at the office range from €40,000 – €55,000.
The employee said that management gave staff members “four or five days” to come up with a counter proposal detailing cost cutting measures.
He said the document, seen by TheJournal.ie, included suggestions of pay freezes and salary reductions of around 10 per cent, but was rejected by management within 24 hours.
No matter what we submitted, the company had their minds made up.
“There was shock alright and, as you can imagine, anger. Some people have been here for 14 or 15 years,” he noted, adding that management had not addressed the issue publicly to “avoid any awkward questions”.
A spokeswoman for Stanley Black & Decker confirmed that the company was “consolidating the majority of its financial accounting service activities for Europe into Warsaw, Poland”.
She said that the move would “increase efficiency and further streamline operations by building one single financial accounting service platform to support our European business”.
The employee said that some staff members received a letter yesterday informing them that most of the roles would be lost on 5 September next, with a few remaining positions being phased out in the succeeding months.
The spokesperson would not comment on specific claims made by employees.
Management are currently working out redundancy packages for the workers, who are not represented by a trade union.
First published 4.43pm
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