Flextronics is starting to make cuts to its business after acquiring rival contract electronics manufacturer Solectron last year for $3.6bn.

In the US Flextronics is closing its Wilmington manufacturing site, which was owned by Solectron. Over 100 jobs will go as a result of the closure.

Flextronics has previously said it would cut around 7,000 jobs worldwide after the acquisition. According to recent reports, however, there will over 11,000 manufacturing job cuts, 350 design or engineering cuts and 1,100 corporate staff cuts.

Apparently there will eight plants cut in Europe and 4,400 jobs. Although both Flextronics and Solectron mostly moved out of the UK years ago, there is a heavy Flextronics presence in Ireland and a site in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The two firms do have distribution centres in England and Scotland but there is no information about whether these sites will be affected.

In the meantime a class action suit has been filed in the US on behalf of employees of Solectron and Flextronics which alleges payment by shift time rather than the time actually worked.

The suit also alleges that the defendants did not pay staff for the time spent putting on and taking off protective gear such as smocks, wrist straps and ankles straps, and the time employees spent going through electrostatic discharge testing.