Jobs face the axe at major energy supply company
MORE THAN 2,000 employees of energy supplier SSE are set to lose their jobs after new owner Ovo announced sweeping redundancies across its business.
Ovo will ask its staff to apply for voluntary redundancy as it tries to shed 2,600 roles after the coronavirus crisis forced it to speed up integration plans, it said yesterday.
Around eight in 10 of these will be among the workers who came to Ovo as part of its £500m deal to buy SSE’s retail arm.
The lion’s share of the lost jobs will be among those who work out in the field, such as meter readers and home service engineers.
Chief executive Stephen Fitzpatrick said: “There is never an easy time to announce redundancies and this is a particularly difficult
decision to take. But, like all businesses, we face a new reality and need to adapt quickly to enable us to better serve our customers and invest in a zero-carbon future.”
Ovo said the Covid-19 outbreak, which has forced many of its field workers to stay at home, has accelerated changes that were already happening in the energy sector.
For instance, customers are now being forced to read their own meters.
“We are seeing a rapid increase in customers using digital channels to engage with us and, in our experience, once customers start to engage differently they do not go back. As a result, we are expecting a permanent reduction in demand for some roles whilst other field-based roles are also heavily affected,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.
The Unite union’s national officer for energy and utilities, Peter McIntosh, said: “This is devastating news for the loyal and dedicated workforce who have continued to provide emergency and essential services to customers throughout the Covid-19 crisis.
“We will be pressing the company to explain why it is not continuing to take advantage of the Government’s JRS which was specifically designed to deal with potential job losses caused by the coronavirus crisis.”
Already among the biggest challengers on the energy market, Mr Fitzpatrick’s business ballooned to become Britain’s second biggest energy supplier after acquiring SSE.
At the time the takeover was announced last September, Pete Wishart, MP for Perth and North Perthshire, said he had been reassured during a meeting with SSE that there would be no job losses.
“This is devastating news for Perth and I know everyone associated with the Ovo/SSE operation in Perth will be worried today,” he said yesterday.
Mr Wishart said he had spoken to Mr Fitzpatrick.
“I reminded him that, when Ovo came to Perth, it was in a blaze of reassuring publicity that they would be a dynamic and different type of energy company, who would challenge the operating model of the ‘Big Six’ energy providers.”