Tata: Up to 500 jobs losses now expected at UK sites

Fewer than 500 jobs are at risk at Tata's UK sites rather than the 1,000 previously feared, BBC Wales has been told.

Tata Steel Europe's chief executive Henrik Adam has told staff job losses across Europe would number 1,250 rather than the 3,000 that had been expected.

Potential job losses were announced in November.

Economy minister Ken Skates said at the time they expected the 1,000 UK job losses to fall in Wales.

In a letter to staff on Monday, Mr Adam described the company's financial situation as "serious".

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"There's an urgent priority to improve the performance of the business and our cash position," he said.

On one profit measure - earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization - the business had lost £76m in the first nine months of the financial year, he said, and the target is to improve this by £650m.

"We have identified a range of measures, including not replacing employees who have retired or left the business, which would minimise job losses," Mr Adam said.

"The proposed plans aim to secure the future of our company and do what's best for our employees given the very challenging circumstances we're currently facing...

"Arrangements will be made to commence consultations for the start of April on the proposed organisational changes with the relevant national employee representatives.

"Our transformation is about securing the future of our business for generations of steelmakers to come."

In November it was suggested two thirds of the job losses across Europe would be management and office-based roles, Tata said.

Tata UK has sites in Port Talbot, Llanwern in Newport, Trostre in Llanelli, Caerphilly and Shotton in Deeside.

Reaction

A Welsh Government spokesman said Tata Steel previously confirmed it wanted to avoid compulsory redundancies and Mr Skates "has impressed on the company the importance of standing by this commitment".

"There are no further details on where the job losses will fall at this point and we continue to engage with Tata Steel about how this will impact their operations in Wales," he added.

A spokesman for the Community trade union said they were still in consultations with Tata Steel, but were pleased the overall number of potential job losses had reduced.

"Our position remains that there must be no compulsory redundancies. It's clear that business as usual is not an option but we have to be assured that the investment the UK needs is brought forward along with a long-term plan to secure the future of the UK businesses."