20th Apr 2016 11:22
LONDON (Alliance News) - Centrica PLC has unveiled plans to cut almost 700 jobs within its British Gas unit by closing an office in Oldbury in the West Midlands, building on other substantial job cuts elsewhere in the business, a union claimed on Wednesday.
GMB, the union that represents British Gas workers, said the plans to cut 684 office jobs was "completely out of the blue" and accused Centrica of seeing its staff as "pawns to be sacrificed when it suits".
The union has suggested the job losses could be on top of the 3,000 job losses that were announced by Centrica on Monday. Importantly, those job losses are being made across the entire business, and not specifically at British Gas.
Centrica has already cut 800 jobs across the business since the start of 2016.
"This announcement has come completely out of the blue and is further evidence of the way British Gas now sees staff as pawns to be sacrificed when it suits," said Brian Sutton, national secretary of GMB.
"The Oldbury office has been performing well, the staff there have been delivering everything asked of them and more, yet all the while the company's top brass on their multi-million pound pay packages have been harbouring secret plans to shut them down," he added.
The union also highlighted that Centrica's peer nPower has also recently cut back operations in Oldbury, meaning the job losses are even more significant to the local area.
"GMB will fight British Gas to try to protect every job we can but today things look bleak for the Oldbury workers," said GMB's Sutton.
Centrica shares were trading down 0.8% to 235.50 pence per share on Wednesday afternoon.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
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