Arup begins redundancy talks

8 Sep 2010, 11:12

Staff at Arup's offices in Liverpool, Wrexham and Manchester are waiting to hear if they will be made redundant following an announcement by the engineering giant that 600 out of 3,800 UK staff will leave their posts.

Arup's recent work in the region includes new further education college buildings in Manchester and Lancashire, the Liverpool Canal Link and the proposed Talbot Gateway scheme by Muse in Blackpool. The company employs more than 200 people in the North West; 13 in Wrexham, 167 in Manchester and 34 in Liverpool.

Arup, which has 17 UK offices, said in a statement: "We continue to operate in a period of uncertainty in the economy. Arup, like any responsible business, needs to ensure its long-term business health, which means that it is essential that we match our resources to our current and anticipated workload.

"Like many other businesses, we have been affected by the weak market, as well as expected and current cuts in government expenditure. Our people are our greatest asset and it is with regret that the very difficult decision has been taken to implement a programme of redundancies, with a 90 day consultation beginning on 6 September. While we will endeavour to redeploy staff within the firm where possible, we anticipate that these staff reductions may affect up to 600 employees. Groups that are part of the consultation include staff across Arup in the UK.

"We have begun a statutory 90-day consultation period with staff potentially affected, and we are doing everything that we can to ensure the programme is handled with transparency and sensitivity."

The number of staff employed in the North West was not immediately available from Arup.

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2 Comments Add Comment

Good luck to those who will be affected. …

comment by Brian | 08/09/2010 12:09:05

Construction is the life blood of the British economy now that manufacturing has gone east. We are a service industry nation now and this Government needs to take action to stop further decline. Best of luck to those that will be affected, it's a sad state of affairs…

comment by gerry | 09/09/2010 16:22:48