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Corus deny plans for 1,500 further redundancies

Steel firm Corus has denied claims that it was planning to nearly double job cuts.

Lord Brookman, general secretary of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation from 1993 to 1999, said in the House of Lords that he believed the company was planning 1,500 further redundancies.

He claimed they were in addition to the 2,500 job cuts at its British plants announced in January.

But a spokeswoman for Corus said: “It is not true, it is a mistake. We haven’t announced any further redundancies to what was indicated in January and we have no plans to make any more.”

The 3,000 Corus workers on Teesside were largely unaffected by January’s announcement, although one plant at Redcar will be sold as part of the restructuring process.

Lord Brookman told Business Secretary Lord Mandelson in the House of Lords: “There is great concern in that company by trade union representatives at the highest level that the redundancy figure is increasing week-on-week.

“Not the 2,500 figure that was originally mentioned, but it has gone up, as I understand, by a further 1,500.”

Lord Mandelson replied: “I know that the management of Corus decided to make changes both to secure the company’s position when the upturn comes, and to bring about necessary restructuring which would had to have taken place regardless of the recession.

“I will make inquiries as I’m concerned that a greater number of redundancies might be made than those I was originally informed about.”

Although the North East largely escaped the cuts in January, 47 workers at Corus Northern Engineering Services, on Teesside, as well as some support staff for Corus Long Products in the region, are set to lose their jobs.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .