npower action branded "arrogant and insensitive" as it cuts nearly 1,000 West Midlands jobs

THE scale of job losses in the West Midlands from npower’s restructuring is worse than at first thought.

As predicted, it is closing its Stoke-on-Trent operation with the loss of 550 jobs but the Worcester-headquartered energy giant has said this morning that it is closing one of its three offices in Oldbury in the Black Country with 400 jobs affected.

npower confirmed this morning that 1,460 UK jobs are to go as part of a major corporate restructuring.

The company, owned by Germany’s RWE, plans to outsource much of its customer service and back office functions to Capita and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). 

npower said about 540 of its existing staff will transfer to Capita. It is not known at this stage whether this includes workers from Stoke and Oldbury.

npower employs 9,600 people in the UK.

Chief executive Paul Massara said: “This restructure is necessary if we are to deliver the levels of service our customers deserve.”

npower said the 1,460 redundancies would take place over the next eight months.

The Labour MP for Warley – which covers the Oldbury area – said he found the plans “incredibly arrogant and insensitive”.

John Spellar said it was an “astonishing” proposal at a time when energy firms were under fire over profits.

“There is a massive public debate about energy prices and profits and now in their insatiable greed, they’re sacking British employees just before Christmas and transferring the jobs to India,” he said.

“Their behaviour is a disgrace and the energy secretary needs to consider the whole shape of the energy market.”

npower has agreed to meet representatives of the trade union Unison for talks on Monday.