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NI water company to shed 200 jobs | NI water company to shed 200 jobs |
(about 14 hours later) | |
Two hundred people are to lose their jobs at Northern Ireland Water (NIW). | |
The government-owned company said most of the jobs would be cut over the next few months. NI Water aims to reduce its workforce from 1,700 to 1,500. | |
The Unite trade union claimed workers were victims of a company policy which favoured using an increasing number of private contractors. | |
However, NIW chairman Chris Mellor said the job losses were necessary to control costs. | |
"Everyone wants to see us improve the efficiency and service of NIW so this year we are embarking on a major programme to improve productivity in the business and that will entail us going from about 1,700 last year down to about 1,500 this year," said Mr Mellor. | |
Unite said more than 50% of the company's water and sewerage work had been farmed out to private contractors. | Unite said more than 50% of the company's water and sewerage work had been farmed out to private contractors. |
The union said it would continue to oppose the job losses. | The union said it would continue to oppose the job losses. |
"They didn't talk about controlling costs when they gave their chief executive a quarter of a million pound handshake for going away, so that argument doesn't hold up at all," said Unite regional organiser Albert Mills. |
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