Fri Oct 7, 2011 11:3PM GMT
Reddit
British helicopter manufacturing company, AgustaWestland, has announced plans to axe around 400 employees in order to meet the budget cuts made by the British government.
The Anglo-Italian helicopter company owned by Italy's Finmeccanica accused cuts in revenues from the Ministry of Defence and the decline in export orders for the job losses.
The company has 3,600 employees in the UK and the cuts in the number of its employees are another setback to the country's gloomy employment situation, with the British unemployment rate being on the rise already.
Britain's unemployment rate for the three months to July was 7.9%. Between May and July 2011, 2.51 million British people were unemployed up by 80,000 in the first quarter of the year and 44,000 in the same quarter in 2010.
British shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, criticized the government for its lack of support for the industry that, in turn, leads to job losses and compulsory redundancies.
“The worrying thing for BAE and possibly now for Westland is that the British Government isn't willing to support enough British industry. We can't always buy British, but we should be supporting British companies who are world-leaders,” said Murphy in an interview with the BBC.
“They have been bidding for work in recent months and been unsuccessful and I think it is partly because the Government would rather get on to a plane to the United States and sign a contract in Washington than support home-grown business here in the UK,” he added.
ISH/HE
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