Scotland spared as NTL slashes jobs

Published on Wednesday 10 May 2006 00:43

A STAY of execution has been granted to 1,700 workers in Scotland after the cable company NTL announced a major slimdown following its £3.4 billion merger with Telewest.

The firm plans to cut its 17,000-strong workforce by more than a third - axeing 3,000 jobs and outsourcing 3,000 more - but jobs north of the Border will not be immediately affected.

More than 900 call-centre staff work at Bellshill, Lanarkshire and 275 customer support staff are spread between the west of Scotland and Livingston. A further 348 staff who formerly worked for Telewest are employed in Edinburgh and 125 in Glenrothes, Fife.

A spokeswoman for NTL said: "There aren't immediate changes to the workforce in Scotland, but that does not mean there won't be. A decision on that will be made over the next year and a half."

Fears have been raised that Scottish jobs will be lost eventually. David Merrylee, 25, of Uddingston, Lanarkshire, said: "We haven't been told anything official yet, but from what senior managers have said it sounds as though our jobs are safe. They seem to think so anyway. But we'll all feel a lot happier when we know for sure that our jobs are OK."

Lawrence Simonini, 18, from New Stevenson, Lanarkshire, said: "This is a good place to work and I would have hated to have lost my job.

"It seems we've somehow avoided the cuts, but who knows what will happen next."

Job losses would have been a huge blow to the Lanarkshire area, where more than 60,000 people are out of work.

NTL's move, which will instead affect workers at Swansea, Liverpool and Teesside, comes as the Hampshire-based company tries to make cost savings of 250 million by the end of 2007.

NTL said it hoped a large number of cuts would be achieved through natural wastage, voluntary severance and a reduction in part-time staff. But it is understood there might be up to 1,000 compulsory redundancies.

Michael McMahon, the Labour MSP for Hamilton and Bellshill, told of his relief that the NTL call centre in Bellshill had been spared.

"I was hopeful that we could get some good news, and obviously I'm very relieved that we are not talking about redundancies," he said.

"There was good news last week [with] Sky TV creating new jobs in the constituency, and it would have been very disheartening if that had been followed by jobs moving away."

Steve Burch, NTL's chief executive, said that, although the details of the shake-up were still being finalised, he did not expect any jobs to be sent abroad to countries such as India - a situation welcomed by unions.

Meanwhile, the home shopping firm Littlewoods Shop Direct added to the employment gloom by announcing plans to close three warehouses, with the loss of 1,200 jobs.

Another blow came when the food giant Heinz said production of the iconic British brand HP Sauce is to be moved abroad, with the loss of 125 jobs at its plant in Aston, Birmingham.

An official of the TGWU said of yesterday's jobs announcements: "This is a day of disaster for workers across industry. Urgent government action is needed to stop this developing into a meltdown, particularly in manufacturing."

Sharon Elliott, of the trade union BECTU, said: "As NTL moves forward with its proposals, we are calling on the company to enter into proper and timely consultation with the staff affected and with BECTU."