Thames Water: Debt-laden firm announces more redundancies before Christmas
Thames Water has come in for sharp criticism from a major trade union after announcing a round of 37 redundancies just before Christmas.
The utilities firm’s latest job cuts, which will be across retail, digital and operational management departments, come after 140 earlier in the month, with the GMB union saying it was “not the answer to the company’s short or long-term woes”.
A company spokesperson said the company knows it “can’t do everything” and that it “needs to make more difficult but necessary decisions to ensure we continue to deliver to our budgets.”
This, it was announced earlier this month, would involve the loss of up to 300 jobs.
Only this week, it was announced Thames Water will be forced to pay £73.7m back to customers for failing to meet performance targets.
This comes as the company was accused of having “danced with the devil” on top of a mammoth £14bn debt pile.
The utility giant was “sorry” to have failed customers, having missed a whopping 45 per cent of its performance commitments this year. A Thames Water spokesperson said previously told City PM, the firm was “determined to do better for our customers and the environment.”
Criticising the latest round of job cuts, Gary Carter, GMB national officer, said: “More redundancies by Thames is not the answer to the company’s short or long-term woes.
“If this is part of a plan, then it’s not one the workforce knows or signs up to. As it stands hundreds of loyal Thames Water workers will lose their jobs before Christmas. “
Carter added: “Problems at Thames run deep and redundancies are not the answer. The shareholders need to invest in assets, infrastructure and jobs, not redundancies. Workers at Thames deserve better news at Christmas.”