Airline seat firm Safran axes fifth of staff at Cwmbran site

A total of 155 jobs have been lost at an airline seat factory in Cwmbran

More than 150 jobs have been lost at an airline seat factory in Cwmbran. 

Safran Seats had been consulting staff about cuts since April and has now confirmed it has axed 20% of its workforce in Torfaen.

The company said 68 workers had been made redundant and further 87 were taking voluntary redundancy - a total of 155.

French-owned Safran Seats GB had previously employed 1,200 people across the UK.

As well as Cwmbran, the firm has a presence in Newport, Brackley in Northamptonshire, and Camberley in Surrey.

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The firm said the 68 compulsory redundancies were as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A spokesman added: "We have put in place employee support services for health and wellbeing through our employee assistance programme, as well as (having) provided outplacement support with an external company to support colleagues for up to three months."

'An awful time'

In a joint statement, Torfaen's member of the Senedd (MS) and MP, Lynne Neagle and Nick Thomas-Symonds respectively, said: "This is clearly an awful time for the families of those who have been made redundant.

"Our thoughts are with them at this very tough time.

"We are very disappointed that these job losses have happened, particularly as the furlough scheme was designed to protect jobs in this situation."

They said they would continue to work with Torfaen council and Unite the union to save local jobs and would continue make the case for "vital" sector-specific support.