Delivery firm cuts 200 jobs
Saturday August 22 2009
ParceL delivery company UPS is closing a call centre with the loss of 200 jobs because it can't find multi-lingual staff in Ireland, it has announced.
Workers are to be laid off on a phased basis between October and next May at the customer service offices in Tallaght, south Dublin. Around 60 jobs will be relocated to another plant at Ballymount in north Dublin.
Nigel Goodson, UPS director of human resources Britain and Ireland, said the shutdown was unavoidable because of a lack of language skills in the Irish workforce.
Mandelson to leave hospital
British business Secretary Peter Mandelson was expected to leave hospital today after undergoing a routine operation to deal with a suspected enlarged prostate gland.
Mr Mandelson, who is also the First Secretary of State, spent the night at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, west London. A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said that "all the expectations" were that he had been suffering from an enlarged prostate gland.
Nasa launch countdown
NASA has begun the launch countdown for space shuttle Discovery.
The countdown clocks began ticking late last night. Discovery is scheduled to blast off early on Tuesday morning. Forecasters put the odds of acceptable conditions at 70pc.
Discovery and a crew of seven will deliver about 7,711kg of supplies and equipment to the international space station. NASA test director Steve Payne said the only outstanding issue is a shuttle power controller that had to be replaced, but so far all the testing looks good.
Health shop to sell sex aids
Health foods retailer Holland & Barrett has added sex aids to its stocks of vitamins and natural supplements.
Two intimate massagers, designed to provide sexual stimulation to women, are now on sale on the chain's website.
The Femblossom and Womolia massagers by Emotional Bliss are priced at £49.95 (€57) and form part of the company's sexual health range.
