GKN jobs fear as aerospace giant pays staff to quit
AEROSPACE giant GKN is offering voluntary redundancy to thousands of staff – raising fears that it is planning sweeping job cuts.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the plane parts manufacturer, which is owned by FTSE 100 buyout firm Melrose, has asked staff at two of its largest aerospace factories to take voluntary redundancy to limit substantial involuntary cuts that are believed to be looming.
Aerospace manufacturers are grappling with a slump in demand in civil aviation and are hoping job cuts will help them to survive the coronavirus outbreak.
Last week, Rolls-Royce announced plans to slash 9,000 jobs – a fifth of its workforce.
GKN’s voluntary redundancy programme has reopened at its Filton and Western Approach plants in Bristol, which together employ nearly 2,000 staff.
The Unite union has struck a deal for enhanced voluntary severance packages to ‘mitigate any future potential compulsory redundancies’.
The firm revealed last September that 1,000 jobs would go worldwide at its aerospace division. However, speculation is mounting that the cuts will now be much bigger.
Unite national officer for aerospace, Rhys McCarthy, said: ‘What this situation does highlight is that the Government’s Job Retention Scheme, although welcome, will only be a temporary sticking plaster for the crisis that aviation, airports and aerospace are facing. A wider package of support is necessary.’
The union is urging the Government to assemble a taskforce or national recovery council including unions, manufacturers and the industry body to protect the sector, which directly employs 110,000 people.
McCarthy added: ‘The state must intervene to create demand and boost growth. This Government’s do-next-to-nothing approach is putting tens of thousands of highly skilled jobs at risk and jeopardises our country’s world leading role.’
A Melrose spokesman said decisions about cuts are made by the separate divisions rather than by Melrose itself. The firm has introduced an external hiring freeze and has cut its use of agency workers.
The collapse in Melrose’s share price in recent months has killed off any hopes of a bonus bonanza for four bosses. The Mail on Sunday revealed during Melrose’s controversial takeover of GKN in 2018 that the chiefs were in line for up to £285 million in bonuses. The scheme will now pay out nothing.
The four – Melrose chief executive Simon Peckham, executive vice chairmen Christopher Miller and David Roper, and finance director Geoffrey Martin – scooped £42million each from the previous pay scheme in 2017.