Shorts to axe around 300 jobs

Belfast aerospace company Shorts has announced it is to axe nearly 300 jobs, around 200 less than was originally estimated.

The company had previously announced 580 redundancies, in response to what it called "very challenging market conditions", as the second part of an overall job cutting exercise announced back in March of 1,180 jobs.

However employees were informed yesterday that around 300 jobs will go by the end of the year.

A statement from Shorts today said: "We deeply regret having to lose valued employees, but the number is lower than the 580 we originally estimated. The aerospace industry continues to face challenging times and an uncertain, volatile market. It is essential that we regain our competitiveness to help secure jobs in the longer term, and to be ready for the upturn in the market when it comes.

"We will be closely monitoring our production rates over the coming months to meet our customers' requirements. We will also be working closely with the local trade unions to help mitigate the number of redundancies, as we have done in the past."

Today's decision does not relate to the 1,050 jobs under threat at the company because of a pay dispute.

This dispute ran into further problems last week when talks broke down between unions and management.

Around 1,000 jobs have been under threat at the company's Belfast base after the employees rejected a proposed four-year pay agreement.

It appears the two sides disagreed over apprentice intake and holiday entitlement, with union members accusing the company of being "inflexible".

However, Shorts management hit back claiming the issues of contention were not issued during last week's talks but that they were still "committed to engage in constructive dialogue with workforce representatives in a bid to protect jobs here".

(MB)