MANAGEMENT at chemical firm BOC were remaining tip-lipped on Thursday night amid fears that hundreds of its workers across Ireland and the UK, including its east Belfast plant, were to be laid off.
The Irish News revealed yesterday that BOC, which supplies industrial gases and medical gases, has written to staff warning them of a review of operations.
It is understood BOC, a member of the £10 billion Linde Group, wants to laid off more than 460 staff.
Its main Northern Ireland depot at Prince Regent Road in Belfast employs close to 100 staff and it also has a number of smaller depots across the island.
In a letter seen by this paper, which was sent out to staff on Wednesday, BOC said that the transformation of its business will "regrettably involve a reduction in headcount".
The letter adds: "This will result in a programme of compulsory redundancies. However, there are certain areas/functions where we may be able to offer a voluntary redundancy programme to reduce the need for compulsory redundancies.
"We will send details in the next few weeks to those who become eligible to apply."
In a separate statement to the Irish News the company said: “In response to the deepening slowdown that is affecting the global economy and the UK manufacturing sector, and subsequent changes in customer requirements, BOC is carrying out a review of its operations in the UK & Ireland .
“We are unable to make any further comment at this stage.”
BOC’s parent firm Linde Group is a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 50,000 employees working in more than 100 countries and sales of €14 billion.
Across Ireland the company supplies nitrogen, oxygen and argon for a range of industrial uses.
The job losses, when confirmed, come in the wake of plane-maker Bombardier Shorts announcing last month that it was laying off more than 1,000 workers on Queen's Island.
The Canadian-owned aerospace giant has struggled over recent years, due in the main to low sales of its C Series plane. Parts of the aircraft, including the wings, are made in Belfast.
The company said it will be “taking steps to optimise its workforce in 2016 and 2017”, with 7,000 redundancies across its global workforce.
It is cutting its Belfast workforce by 580 this year and expects to have a further potential reduction of some 500 next year.
