Rolls Royce announces UK job cuts

Shares in Rolls-Royce opened 2.71 per cent down in early morning trading on Friday (December 12th) after the company announced job cuts.

The company is embarking on a worldwide restructuring of its operations with hundreds of positions expected to be lost. Rolls-Royce has sites across the UK with a major facility in Derby employing 12,000 workers. Cuts are due to be made in the coming months and will mostly affect the firm's aerospace division.

Around 300 jobs will be lost in Derby while 140 will be cut in the Rolls-Royce plant in Ansty, Warwickshire. Over 150 positions are scheduled for removal at the company's factories in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, Barnoldswick, Lancashire and Hucknall in Nottinghamshire. The decision is part of the firm's long-term restructuring programme.

A spokesman for Rolls-Royce said: "It is never an easy decision to make changes and propose reductions in our workforce, but it is a sign of the increasingly competitive market in which we operate.

"The measures we have outlined to our employees will contribute towards Rolls-Royce becoming a stronger company in the long term."

Members of the Unite union have described the decision as a "huge loss of skills to the UK economy". Tony Tinley, union officer, explained that it will potentially lead to Rolls-Royce having to outsource high-tech manufacturing jobs from overseas in order to fill the skills. Mr Tinley also called for Rolls-Royce to provide assurances over the long-term stability of its UK operations.

In October, Rolls-Royce warned that sanctions imposed on Russia were beginning to impact on its own operations. It came after the engineering firm saw shares plummet 11.5 per cent and prompted it to revise its group underlying revenue for 2014 to 3.5 per cent to four per cent lower than originally expected.

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