Thursday November 20, 12:58 PM
Rolls-Royce plans up to 2,000 job cuts in 2009
 |
LONDON (AFP) - Rolls-Royce, the British maker of aircraft engines, said Thursday it anticipated cutting between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs worldwide in 2009, or up to five percent of its global workforce.
"Rolls-Royce has been reviewing the possible impact of current economic uncertainties, delays on individual programmes, such as the Airbus A380 and the Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) 787, and the benefits of the group's continuing focus on efficiency," the company said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange (LSE: LSE.L - news) .
"While it is too early to be specific about the precise implications for the number and location of job reductions, the group's current assessment is that in 2009 it will be necessary to implement job reductions... of around 1,500 to 2,000 on a worldwide basis," the statement added.
Rolls Royce (LSE: RR.L - news) employs 39,000 people globally, with 60 percent of its staff working in Britain.
The company on Thursday said its planned job cuts "have no effect on the group's 2008 financial guidance" while any costs linked to a reduction in workforce was expected to be balanced by savings made in 2009.
Rolls-Royce has cut 2,300 jobs so far this year.
"We are determined to maintain our focus on cost reduction and competitiveness as the world economy enters a challenging period," Rolls-Royce chief executive John Rose said in comments accompanying Thursday's statement.
"It is too early to determine the precise effects of the global economic downturn and programme delays. However, we wanted to give all our employees early indication of the likely scale of the job reductions we expect in 2009," he added.
Rolls-Royce added that it had begun consulting employee representatives about a proposed reduction of 140 jobs at its assembly and test facility in Derby, central England, that forms part of the group's civil aerospace business.
In early afternoon trading, the share price of Rolls-Royce stood down 1.12 percent to 264.75 pence on London's index of top 100 shares. The FTSE 100 was trading 1.34-percent lower below 4,000 points.
Last week, the head of the European aerospace group EADS (Paris: NL0000235190 - news) said deliveries of some super-jumbo Airbus A380 airliners scheduled for next year may be delayed until 2010.
Airbus is the main subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company.
Meanwhile the first deliveries of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, initially planned for the first half of 2008, have been pushed back to the third quarter of 2009 because of production difficulties.
The Dreamliner, the US planemaker's first new model in more than a decade, is a mid-sized fuel-efficient jet.
|
|
|
Send Article by Email
Send Article by IM
Blog This with Y! 360
Printable View
