About 1,700 employees of Tata Steel, UK have opted for voluntary redundancy scheme. The scheme was offered in July, after several rounds of negotiations with the workers’ unions. The scheme will close next week, on 7 August, as reported by Money Control. The company expects to retain about 5,000 employees, in various functions, including, tubes, construction steels, marketing and sales.
Those who do not opt for the voluntary redundancy scheme stand the risk of compulsory redundancy if their job is axed post closure. About 2,600 are expected to be rendered jobless as the steel manufacturing company is shutting down its ‘heavy-end’ assets at Port Talbot. The coke oven was already shut down along with one blast furnace. Come September, and the second blast furnace will also shut down. The company will soon replace these with electric arc furnaces.
The UK government will be investing 500 million pounds in restructuring, an amount that is yet to be released. Tata Steel and the UK government had been discussing restructuring plans, costing 1.25 billion pounds.
In April 2024, members of Unite, the workers’ union in Britain, had voted in favour of calling a strike against the closure of blast furnaces by Tata Steel. At the time, Tata Steel was reportedly upset that the workers had expressed their desire to go for industrial action while discussions were still on. It is pertinent to mention there that there has been no strike at the plant in over four decades.
