The news released from BAE this morning is distressing and my thoughts are with those affected by the potential 340 job losses in the Portsmouth area. In light of some recent failures to secure valuable contracts, BAE state restructuring and redundancies may be vital to ensure the company is sustainable moving forward.
BAE have told me that most of the possible job losses would be in white collar, management roles. They are confident that a good number would be achieved through voluntary redundancy and that compulsory redundancies would be kept to an absolute minimum. They would also be planning to see staff retrained and redeployed within their own business. I am pleased that BAE are in active dialogue with their staff and Trade Unions.
I have spoken to Harriett Baldwin the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Defence Procurement to seek her support for our local area as these changes take place.
Claire Perry, Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, answered Urgent Questions in Parliament today on this topic. You can read it here.
For more information please visit http://www.baesystems.com/en/article/announcement-of-organisational-changes.
