Prominent defence company, BAE Systems has stated that it will be terminating nearly 3000 employees throughout the nation, primarily within the military aircraft division.
After days of media speculation, BAE announced the details of an upcoming redundancy programme, which is supposed to help the company maintain an ideal stance amongst the competition. While the sites in Lancashire and East Yorkshire are expected to lose the most jobs, even the head office in Hampshire will be taking job cuts as well.
When asked about the decision to eliminate so many jobs, BAE Systems chief executive, Ian King, commented that the move was a payroll decision, noting the importance of affordability as many of their clients are becoming increasingly limited in their defence budgets.
With recent reports showing that the company is receiving less orders for their Eurofighter Typhoon combat jet, executives have made the decision to significantly cut back on employee funding for the military aircraft division of the company. Workers at the Brough site in East Yorkshire have even speculated that the building will no longer be a manufacturing facility.
The four main countries that were helping to fund the Typhoon combat jet programme (Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) have all recently requested that the production rates be slowed in order to help accommodate the increasing budget pressures.
Although this is not all bad news for BAE systems, as it extends their production contracts, it also significantly decreases their workload and eliminates the need for thousands of employees. Unfortunately, many skilled men and women throughout the UK will be facing unemployment this year, and experts estimate that at least 900 families will be without livelihood at least temporarily.
