14/03/2012

Daw Mill Under Threat Of Closure

Due to a dispute over pay and working practices UK Coal has threatened to shut Britain's largest coal mine, jeopardising 800 jobs.

Britain's largest coal mining company has begun a consultation over a proposal to close its Daw Mill mine, in Arley near Coventry, in early 2014.

It comes three months after the company had agreed a deal with unions on pay and conditions.

Daw Mill is the only remaining pit in a region that once had dozens of deep mines and employed thousands of miners.

But a "go slow" by miners at the Warwickshire colliery had hit production a spokeswoman claimed.

"It has reached a critical point. The company can't afford to keep running Daw Mill as it is," she said.

UK Coal is also in talks with its main lender, Lloyds Banking Group, and hopes to agree renewed facilities to the end of 2013.

Last April the group admitted it had "deep-rooted problems" after slumping to a loss of nearly £130m for the second year in a row. Its executive chairman Jonson Cox, who took over in November, said: "It's a story of woeful and sustained underperformance that's been tolerated for far too long." He vowed to carry out a "complete overhaul of strategy". Last year the company saved £12m by withdrawing an inflation-linked pay rise and downscaling its head office.

(H)

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