Bausch & Lomb has announced that it will make 120 job cuts from it Waterford manufacturing plant, with operations being moved in its New York facilities where production is cheaper.

Michael McDougal, vice president, corporate communications and public affairs at B&L, confirmed to OT that the new job losses are additional to the 195 cuts which were made at the Ireland plant through voluntary redundancies in March this year.

Management in Waterford met with employees to break the news earlier this month. The latest job losses will take staff employed at the plant from 1,200 to just over 1,000.

A spokesman for B&L explained that the contact lens giant has decided to move the manufacturing of two of it PureVision lenses and all of its SofLens line from Waterford to Rochester, New York. He said: “In addition, Rochester will become the PureVision SVS manufacturing site for new orders worldwide, with any manufacturing overflow directed to Waterford. The transition will occur over the coming months.”
The move will not lead to increases in the Rochester workforce at present.

The spokesperson added: “This decision comes as the result of B&L’s ongoing programme to strengthen its business globally. At this time, the company is able to manufacture these contact lenses in Rochester at a lower cost than in Ireland.

“B&L remains committed to the PureVision and SofLens 38 brand contact lens lines, and has taken steps to ensure that supplies to eye care professionals are uninterrupted during the transition.”

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