More than 450 staff to be furloughed at building firm

Sheffield-headquartered house builder MJ Gleeson is to furlough more than three quarters of its workforce.

The listed company says 456 employees will be furloughed in-line with the Government’s Job Retention Scheme, with the company topping-up salaries of those affected up to a minimum of 80% and a maximum of 95% of salary.

Also as part of its reaction to the Coronavirus pandemic, the business says all members of its Board are taking a reduction in salary/fees of 30%.

Senior management are taking cuts in salary of between 5% and 20%, weighted according to salary bands.

MJ Gleeson’s update, released today, adds: “Together with the actions already taken including cancellation of the interim dividend, pausing all build activity and land acquisition, cutting discretionary costs and implementing a recruitment freeze, the company has now implemented a comprehensive range of actions to ensure it is well placed to restart operationally once conditions allow. 

“A key priority is to reopen sites and sales offices once it is appropriate and safe to do so and our focus now turns to putting in place a programme to ensure as efficient a restart as possible immediately the resumption of trading is permitted.

“We are keen to work with central government and local authorities to agree what provisions might be put in place to enable the safe resumption of building much-needed quality affordable homes as soon as it is practicable to do so.

“Two-thirds of the homes we sell are to people in what are now designated Key Worker roles.

“In recognition of their extraordinary efforts in keeping us all safe, fed and healthy the Board has decided that, when the company is able to recommence site build activities, it will prioritise house sales to Key Workers.”