EIRCOM HAS offered a “voluntary leaving scheme” to staff in its consumer retail division. The company informed staff yesterday that it would hold briefings with affected workers on Tuesday and that it wanted to implement the job cuts by March 27th.

Under the terms of the scheme, workers with five to 10 years of service would be eligible to six weeks pay per year up to a maximum of €140,000 and a pension at 60. Those closer to retirement age could earn a payout of up to €100,000 and have years added to their pensions.

A spokesman for Eircom said this was part of “ongoing change within the company” and part of its stated target of reducing its headcount by 900 by 2010, of which 641 has been achieved.

He said up to 50 staff were expected to avail of the latest scheme. The spokesman said Eircom would shortly begin separate talks on other cost reduction measures with its unions.

Steve Fitzpatrick, general secretary of the Communications Workers Union, said Eircom’s March 27th deadline would not be met. “I can’t see there being a lot of people being prepared to run out of there into the present [jobs] market,” he said.

Eircom said yesterday that it lost as many as 41,000 retail telephone customers in the first half of its fiscal year. The company took a €720 million goodwill writedown in light of its rising pension deficit and a deterioration in the outlook for profits.

While Eircom added 46,000 broadband customers during the six months to December, this represented a decrease of 42 per cent on the comparable period in 2007. The rate loss of retail telephone contracts was five times greater than in the previous year.

It said pressure on revenue and profits were growing, adding that it did not anticipate external forces improving in the short or medium term.

Cathal Magee, formerly the managing director of Eircom’s retail unit, has been appointed acting chief executive.

Eircom’s defined benefit pension scheme fell to a deficit of €433 million at the end of 2008 from a €20 million surplus in the middle of the year.

The goodwill writedown stands as an acknowledgement from Eircom’s prime shareholder Babcock Brown Capital (BCM) that it overpaid for the business in a €2.36 billion takeover deal in mid-2006.

Some €405 million of the writedown came off the €1.63 billion value of the goodwill in Eircom’s fixed-line business and €315 million came off the €711 million goodwill in its mobile business, Meteor.

At €1.03 billion, Eircom’s revenue for the six months to December was in line with the corresponding period in the previous year. Group earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation dropped 4 per cent to €333 million.

Eircom had an operating loss of €575 million in the period, a €791 million pretax loss and net loss of €799 million.

Mr Fitzpatrick of the Communications Workers Union said he was “appalled but not surprised” at the gravity of the financial situation.

“Since its sell-off by the State in 1999, Eircom has been the victim of a series of ownership changes which have loaded it with an increasing and unsustainable debt burden to a point where its debts now total €4 billion,” he said.

“We are calling on Minister [Eamon] Ryan and Comreg to immediately engage with the company and its owners on the financial position it faces, and the threats these pose to telecoms services and the jobs of 9,000 workers.”