Almost 400 jobs to go at aviation firm

Some 399 jobs are to be axed at Safran Seats, the firm which makes airline seats.

The firm is headquartered in Surrey, and has a site in Brackley, Northants.

More than 200 jobs are under threat at Camberley, Surrey, which the French-owned company intends to close, and there are a further 187 proposed redundancies at Cwmbran in south Wales out of a workforce of about 1,250.

The company also has a site in Braintree, Essex.

Victoria Foy, Safran Seats GB chief executive told TheBusinessDesk.com: “The aerospace industry is facing an unprecedented crisis because of the wide-ranging impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. There has been a 75% reduction in the amount of global air travel, and the financial impact of this is already being felt throughout the industry.

“We have taken swift steps to protect the health of our employees and business. This included implementing safe working arrangements for our employees and releasing the vast majority of our contractors.

“We are very appreciative of the support that we are receiving from the Government in the form of the Job Retention Scheme, we saw the impact of  COVID-19 on our business early March due to the global nature of our business. Unfortunately, and even with this support, our business cannot sustain the significant financial impact of the coronavirus crisis without taking further steps.

“Therefore, with great regret, we have started to consult on a redundancy proposal, which includes a proposal to close the Camberley site. The total number of people affected will be finalised through the consultation process with the Employee Consultative Committee and individual employees. At this stage, it is expected to be around 30% of the current workforce.

“This difficult step is proposed in order to protect the longer-term existence of Safran Seats in the UK, with its head office and Final Assembly Line in Cwmbran, South Wales.

“Over the coming weeks we will consult with the Employee Consultative Committee (ECC) and our employees. We will provide as much support as we can for our employees through this challenging period.

“We hope that these steps, whilst deeply regrettable, will help to protect the longer-term future for Safran Seats GB.”

The decision to axe the roles as been branded as “knee-jerk” by union bosses.

Unite national officer for aerospace Rhys McCarthy said: “Unite is extremely concerned by Safran Seats UK’s decision to announce the redundancy threat to 399 highly skilled workers, totalling 25 per cent of its workforce across its four UK sites.

“The government’ job retention scheme, now extended until the end of June, that trade unions, including Unite, lobbied for was put in place to avoid this kind of knee jerk reaction.

“It is appalling that the company has not used this scheme to its full extent to buy time to look at alternatives to this massive jobs’ cull. It has applied for the JRS and should have continued to go down that route, instead of opting for immediate widespread redundancies as the first option.

“Unite is, unfortunately, not surprised by Safran’s behaviour as we have an outgoing human rights dispute with the company and a complaint lodged with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) regarding Safran’s anti-trade union behaviour at its Cwmbran site in breach of a legally binding global agreement which the company signed up to.

“Unite will raise with Safran executives at the highest level the urgent need to rescind this decision and safeguard the employees’ jobs by taking up the government’s JRS.

“This is potentially another blow to the UK aviation and aerospace industries which needs government industry-specific support, as promised, to see the sectors through the pandemic.”