Software and textile jobs axed

Caurthalls factory in Markethill had fall-off in orders

Textile workers at a factory in County Tyrone have been put under threat of redundancy, while a County Armagh textile factory has closed.

The 124 textile workers at the Daintyfit factory in Plumbridge are understood to have been placed on a 90-day protective notice.

A union spokesman said he did not foresee much prospect of saving the jobs.

And the Daintyfit underwear factory owned by Courtaulds in Markethill has closed with the loss of more than 100 jobs.

The company had announced last month that it had decided to shut the County Armagh plant, due to falling orders.

Software redundancies

Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland branch of IMR Global has announced it is closing its software development centre in Belfast, axing 53 jobs after only three years.

Management said the move was part of a worldwide restructuring by the US company.

Vice president of IMR Global (NI) Ltd Karen Sleat said that the Belfast employees had been informed of the plans to restructure in December, and that since then nearly 100 had found new jobs at other Northern Ireland IT companies.

"The parent company refocused its operations on specialised software solutions for its global clients, particularly in the US.

Job cut at cigarette factory

"Our employees in Belfast are fully capable of doing such work, but most of the clients require the work to be done at or close to their sites rather than remotely in Belfast."

She added that the Belfast workforce would be offered positions at the company's other sites around the world.

Meanwhile, Democratic Unionist Party assembly member Ian Paisley Junior has said rises in government tobacco taxes are to blame for the loss of 40 jobs at Gallaher's cigarette plant in Ballymena, County Antrim.

Mr Paisley said that if the government continued to raise taxes, more people would lose their jobs.