SR Technics to Lay Off 600 on Friday
By Frank Jackman & Bill Burchell 
LONDON/WASHINGTON--SR Technics Wednesday said that approximately 600 employees will be laid off from the company's soon-to-close Dublin facility on Friday, April 3. The Switzerland-based MRO has been in mandated consultations with unions representing its 1,135 Dublin employees since mid-February, when it announced plans to close the operation because of the loss of its major customers and adverse market conditions. Another 100 employees will lose their jobs during April, SRT said.
SRT had been doing airframe base and heavy maintenance, landing gear and APU overhauls, and line maintenance at the nearly 78,000-sq.-m. facility located at Dublin Airport. The six-hangar complex features four widebody bays and nine narrowbody bays and previously was part of the maintenance division of Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus.
Line maintenance will continue in the near term, and SRT said it intends to transfer that business to another provider later in the year. Other activities will continue until work in progress is finished, or will be wound down immediately if all work has been completed. All activities are expected to be wound down or transferred by Aug. 31, SRT said.
"We fully understand the impact of the decision to implement the wind-down of our operation and the first round of redundancies," said Bernd Kessler, CEO SR Technics. "However, based on the outlook for the Dublin facility and following an exhaustive evaluation of all options, the decision was unavoidable.
Irish Labour MP for Dublin NE, Tommy Broughan, confirmed on RTE News Thursday that the Irish Development Agency (IDA) had received 30 expressions of interest in the facility, but most of these were only interested in parts of the business and were waiting to see when SRT actually left the site. However, three or four were "very serious expressions of interest," including one that Broughan said "would be prepared to carry on the SRT business with a transfer of undertakings." That said, the IDA believes all of these expressions would need strong outside investment and maybe some state support, he said.
Union representatives were to hold a mass meeting at Dublin Airport Thursday to review the latest developments. AT the top of their agenda will be the Irish Labour Court's recommendation Wednesday that SRT double its 15 million euro redundancy fund to 30 million euro and make up a major shortfall in the pension fund, which SRT has said it can't afford.
On Wednesday, hundreds of SRT workers blocked the main access road to Dublin Airport in protest at the way SRT has treated them. The unions say they will base their next course of action on the outcome of Thursday's meeting.
Photo: SR Technics
