Further job cuts brought forward at Bombardier

Bombardier has confirmed it is bringing forward 200 planned redundancies in Northern Ireland within the next few months.

In February, the company announced it would be shedding 1,080 jobs in Belfast a two-year period.

Initially, Bombardier said 580 jobs would be axed in 2016, and 500 in 2017.

However the firm decided to bring those cuts forward and more than 700 workers were let go earlier in the year.

On Thursday, a spokesperson said employees have been advised that the process to complete the rest of the cuts has begun.

“This is a very difficult and challenging time for all our workforce and their families, but it is crucial to our long-term future that we continue to significantly reduce our costs and improve our competitiveness,” a statement said.

“We will continue to explore ways to mitigate the number of compulsory redundancies in relation to the completion of this workforce reduction.”

Davy Thompson from the union Unite said the latest announcement has come as a “bolt out of the blue”.

“Obviously the company thought there was going to be an upturn at the end of the year, but the upturn just hasn’t materialised,” he said.

“Bombardier's announcement will mean that all 1,080 redundancies planned over a two-year period will now happen in the current year; 200 more workers will receive redundancy in the months to come.

“It’s going to be tough to mitigate these job losses.”

He said the scale of job losses was such that the UK Government needs to draw upon the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) to help retrain workers to help them get into other work.

He added that while the union was “disappointed at the news we recognise that it reflects the desire of local management to sustain more operations in Belfast for the long-term”.

Michael Mulholland, regional organiser of GMB, said the trade union would also be working to help affected workers.

"GMB is deeply disappointed by today’s announcement," he said.

"Job losses are always saddening but they’re even more difficult when they happen to a workforce that has already had more than its fair share of hardship.

“GMB is committed to minimising the impact of these job losses on our members and will continue to engage with MPs at Stormont to try and mitigate any more job losses from Northern Ireland’s manufacturing industry.”

It is feared that there could be further job losses down the line after the manufacturer revealed earlier this month that it is to reduce its global workforce by 7,500 – with 2,500 to be cut from aerospace.