Troubled Npower ‘to axe 2,500 of its staff ’

A TROUBLED energy firm which has come under fire for having the ‘worst customer service’ in the industry is to axe more than a fifth of its workers, it has been revealed.

The job losses at Npower involve 2,500 internal and contractor posts, which will be cut from the company’s 11,500–strong workforce, according to a source. The company, which has not made any official comment, is expected to confirm the grim news tomorrow, when its German owner RWE will announce its full-year results.

Sales and marketing roles are expected to be the worst hit. The firm has major plants in the UK, including Pembroke and Aberthaw in Wales and Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire. The company’s power station at Didcot in Oxfordshire collapsed last month as it was being prepared for demolition, killing one worker, with three still missing.

The devastating job cuts come just three months after the firm was fined £26million, the largest ever fine for a British power utility, for bungling billing and complaints handling in December. It made a loss of £48million for the first nine months of last year. In January, Npower was voted the worst energy company for customer service for the sixth year running, according to research from consumer group Which?.

Union bosses say the job cuts ‘make a mockery’ of Chancellor George Osborne’s idea of a Northern Powerhouse and are just ‘another kick in the teeth for communities’. Morale is ‘already at rock bottom’, according to union representatives, after the firm’s poor performance in recent months.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: ‘These huge job losses will come as a devastating blow to the workforce. Npower has been in trouble for some time thanks to poor decision-making at the very top, and workers are now paying the price. Cutting a fifth of the workforce will leave the already struggling business in an even worse state.

‘Now months of uncertainly lie ahead for a workforce whose morale is already at rock bottom.’

Eamon O’Hearn of GMB said: ‘Many hardworking staff have already been outsourced so any further job losses would be another kick in the teeth for communities.’

Unite union national officer Kevin Coyne said: ‘These are people with bills to pay and mouths to feed and deserve better than finding out via leaks to the media that they could be out of a job next week.

The company declined to comment.