Defence cuts prompt fears of massive job losses at BAE Systems
DEFENCE cuts and a lack of new orders for the Typhoon Eurofighter have prompted fears of major job losses at BAE Systems.
The defence contractor is thought to be lining up a possible 3,000 redundancies, the bulk of them falling on factories in Yorkshire and Lancashire.
The move follows the group’s decision earlier this year to close its Global Combat Systems operation in Wolverhampton, with the loss of 70 jobs. The plant is currently completing orders before consolidating its support services at its base in Telford.
The plants thought to be in the firing line are at the home of the Hawk jet trainer at Brough, East Yorkshire and at BAE’s military aircraft division in Warton, Lancashire.
Workers at Brough do repairs and spares for Hawk and Tornado aircraft and carry out work on other planes, including Typhoon.
The Brough factory employs around 1,200 people, with 500 being on the shop floor.
BAE has a 33% stake in the Eurofighter joint venture company alongside Airbus manufacturer EADS and Finmeccanica. It has received orders for 550 planes from the four partner nations involved – the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.
A spokeswoman for BAE said the company would not be drawn on possible job cut figures, which she said were speculative.
“As a company we haven’t officially announced anything yet and our approach to this is, as and when we do, we would inform our staff first,” she said.
But in a statement the company, which is Britain’s biggest manufacturing business, said it had informed staff it is “reviewing our operations across various businesses” to make sure it was best placed to secure future business.
It blamed a lack of fighter jet orders on depressed world markets and said a rationalisation of some parts of the business was therefore needed.
BAE said: “In order to bridge the gap between current demand and future anticipated export contracts the production rate on the current Typhoon programme for the partner nations will be slowed.”
It added: “BAE Systems recognises that the long-term future of Typhoon is based on its export potential and therefore we need to ensure we are in the best possible position to secure those opportunities. Extending the production programme will help us achieve this.”
A spokeswoman for BAE told Reuters the review “had more to do with the bridging of the gap between the production of aircraft for those partner nations and any export requirements.”
The firm said it was actively pursuing Typhoon sales in India, Japan, Oman and Malaysia and that exports of the fighter aircraft “remained a priority” for the business.
Unions reacted angrily to the reports, describing the possible job losses as a “hammer blow” to the industry.
Unite, Britain’s biggest union, said it would seek urgent clarification from BAE to clarify which sites will be hit by the losses and would press for redundancies to be voluntary.
