A LEADING Irish construction firm in Britain has announced 300 redundancies will be made across its workforce in the coming months.
Keltbray Ltd, which provides specialist engineering and construction services to projects across the UK, revealed the “programme of redundancies” in a statement made on June 16.
“The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic continue to change our way of life in ways that were unforeseen only three months ago,” Keltbray CEO Darren James said.
“Keltbray has acted decisively and responsibly during the past three months to protect our people and safeguard the business,” he added.
“However, the ongoing impacts of the virus on the wider economy are unavoidable and we will need to go further to emerge stronger for the future.
“Therefore, over the next few weeks we will be consulting with UK-based employees across Keltbray on plans to create a more efficient business as part of our ongoing response to the crisis.
“The reality is that these proposals will result in a reduction in the number of roles in our support functions and in the Built Environment Division in particular. We are therefore proposing to make 300 roles redundant over the coming months.”
The firm, which furloughed a third of its workforce when the Government lockdown restrictions came into effect in March, also introduced temporary salary reductions across the business.
Keltbray bosses now hope that reducing their workforce will allow the firm to weather the extreme economic impact the Covid-19 pandemic is having on the construction industry.
“In taking this difficult action we will match the size of our cost base to our predicted work volumes in our traditional building sectors, particularly in London,” Mr James explained.
“By ensuring we run our business in a lean and efficient way, incorporating productivity gains developed through our response to the pandemic, including the widespread adoption of mobile working, we will continue to provide high quality, high value services to our clients, and maintain our financial resilience to deliver our growth strategy as the markets recover.”
