Telecommunications giant Global Crossing will be downsizing its Bermuda operation from November this year by 60 percent.

Last night the company denied that it was moving its offices out of Bermuda, and claimed it remained committed to the Island.

Yesterday many staff were reportedly called in by management and Global Crossing said many had been offered either a relocation package to Dublin, Ireland, or Madison in New Jersey or redundancy packages.

The move affects the 50-plus staff based in Wessex House in Reid Street while those in finance and engineering departments will go, leaving between 15 and 20 staff in the offices.

An employee said that personnel from Bermuda had been offered relocations packages to Chicago, Florida, London and Detroit.

He added the packages were substantial. He said:"Everyone is dancing on air.'' He added: "The relocation and severance packages are very generous. I am not taking the offer because I have a house here and my wife's family is here. No matter what I am still getting a big cheque.'' Last night Global Crossing, from its press office in New York, would not say how many people the relocation, which they said was being done to centralise both departments, would affect.

"Global Crossing is downsizing the office tremendously,'' said one employee who called The Royal Gazette in distress yesterday. She would not give her name, but said: "The company jet flew in yesterday and the staff have been given until November 17. This means that there will be certain people finishing in November. They have given some people compensation packages. A majority will be made redundant.'' Global Crossing spokeswoman Kim Polan would not discuss how many people the move would affect, how many people would be made redundant, how many would be moved off the Island or say how many people now worked in the office.

Global Crossing pulls plug on bulk of Bermuda operations She said: "The situation is that, as I am sure you realise, the company in the last few years has gone from a couple of hundred employees to over 10,000 employees.

"Now certain of these areas can be amalgamated, so finance and engineering are being amalgamated to Dublin and Madison.'' When asked how many people this would affect she said: "I cannot say.'' She added: "The company will retain its corporate headquarters in Bermuda.

The feeling is that we are very happy with being headquartered in Bermuda. We are very happy to have a solid system of laws and we are very comfortable with the fact that we have a stable government.'' Global Crossing announced in 1998 it was moving its headquarters to Bermuda, when the new company started its race in earnest to be the first telecom business to link the entire world with fibre-optic cable.

It is in direct competition with 360Networks, the owners of TeleBermuda International. The first company to win the race to link the world is likely to dominate the new market in high quality instant transmission of images, sound and information at the touch of a button.

The company's backers are betting billions of dollars on the future growth of the telecommunications industry and that Global Crossing will make its money by selling capacity -- a commodity the equivalent of telephone lines -- to other phone companies and large businesses for Internet and data services.

Global Crossing has been on a global spending spree in the last 18 months, buying up smaller network companies in a bid to complete its links around the world.

Global Crossing originally intended to have a multi-million dollar network monitoring operation in St. David's. But the company decided to base its monitoring centre in Europe.

They instead opened the customer care and headquarters department on Reid Street on two floors at Wessex House with and took on about 50 employees.

Global Crossing shares were down 19/64 yesterday to close at 271 .