BAE Samlesbury job losses but 100 more still need to be found (From Preston and Leyland Citizen)

BAE Samlesbury job losses but 100 more still need to be found

9:00pm Friday 8th January 2010

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ALMOST 100 BAE Systems workers have left the firm’s Samlesbury plant as part of massive job cuts — but another 100 redundancies still need to be found.

Around 65 mostly shop floor staff at the site took voluntary redundancy shortly before Christmas after the defence giant last year announced plans to axe 205 jobs.

Bosses said more voluntary applications have now been approved and 30 more staff would leave the firm 'in the next couple of months'.

But that leaves more than 100 positions still to be axed, some of which are not expected to be voluntary.

Neil Sheehan, a Unite union convenor at Samlesbury, said: “This is a long programme of redundancy and it will stretch right out until the end of the year.

“We are in talks and consultation at the moment, and we are hopeful that we can avoid a lot of compulsory redundancies.

“It is all ongoing at the moment and we are just trying to negotiate and reduce the number of people who have to leave.

“There are opportunities for people to take jobs elsewhere.”

BAE announced in September that 205 jobs at Samlesbury would be axed, along with hundreds of positions at other sites across the North West.

It came after civil Airbus work at the plant ended as the firm concentrated on military contracts at its East Lancashire base, which employs 3,000.

A BAE spokesman said: “We are hopeful that we can manage the job losses through voluntary redundancies which will be staggered throughout the year.”

He said that September’s proposal had a 'good response' from Samlesbury workers.

Just weeks before last year’s job cuts announcement, BAE’s North West engineering director Simon Howison told the Lancashire Telegraph that Samlesbury would be “busy for years” with defence contracts.

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