BAE Systems to axe 600 jobs

Apr 4 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

BAE Systems is to axe almost 600 jobs at Brough, near Hull, and Woodford, near Manchester, the Unite union said yesterday.

The company said the job cuts at Brough would affect engineering, manufacturing and business support areas, while those at Woodford would impact on engineers.

BAE said it had been seeking additional work for the Brough site, but it was not able to sustain the current number of jobs.

A transition plan was being developed to retain "critical capabilities" at Brough, which would include reducing its dependency on the Hawk. Brough site and services director Tony Arksey said: "We recognise that this is a difficult period for all employees and their families and we will continue do everything possible to mitigate the number of job losses." BAE said a review last year of the engineering capabilities in its military air solutions business had identified that the workload would reduce as products moved from design and development into the support phase, which had led to the job cuts at Woodford.

The firm said there was no opportunity for significant transfer of engineering work packages to the site, despite the good reputation of the Woodford team. "The workload for the engineering team makes the current staffing level unsustainable, regrettably resulting in the redundancy announcement," BAE said in a statement.

Woodford site general manager Jim Welsh said: "We recognise that this is a difficult period for all employees and their families and we will continue to do everything practical to mitigate the number of compulsory job losses."

Keith Hazlewood, national officer of the GMB union, said of the Brough job cuts: "This announcement is a devastating blow for the company, the local community and a further blow to UK manufacturing."

BAE is one of the UK’s biggest manufacturing companies supporting directly and indirectly 81,000 jobs.

Its other locations in the UK, including its ammunition factory in Gateshead and its tank factory at Scotswood Road, Newcastle, are not affected by the job cuts.