A UNION leader has attacked Rolls-Royce bosses after the aero engine giant confirmed it was looking for up to 100 job losses at its Barnoldswick site.

The firm said it expected to reduce its workforce by between 80 and 100 in its fan systems unit on the site - the biggest employer in Pendle.

The company, which is also looking for reductions at its other aero engine businesses, said although it had a strong order book, it was vital to reduce costs to remain competitive.

But angry union bosses said the job cuts were unnecessary.

"Whilst some of it can be attributable to a drop in the workload here most of it is about producing double digit profit growth for the city," said angry John Boardman, AEEU convenor at the site which employs more than 1,100.

"This should not be happening when levels of overtime for some areas are running at 40 per cent with workers putting in 20 hours extra a week."

And Mr Boardman said morale at the site was poor after a year of speculation over job cuts.

"Everyone has lost confidence in the ability of management."

A spokesman for Rolls-Royce said costs had to be cut.

"We have to drive costs out of the business. We are in a highly competitive market and we need to increase performance and reduce costs and manpower is a part of that." She stressed that there was no time scale involved in the job cuts and that it was expected they could be achieved through voluntary means or redeployment. The spokesman pointed out that the company had an average natural wastage of around four and a half per cent of the workforce every year.

In June this year Pendle MP Gordon Prentice met Rolls-Royce chief executive John Rose and urged him to redeploy and retrain workers rather than make them redundant as part of its drive for more efficiency.

The Labour backbencher was horrified at the prospect of job losses when the company had a £13 billion order book and its biggest ever profits.

However Mr Rose told him and other MPs that there was a rosy future for the aerospace company but only if it matched and beat the productivity of its two main competitors - the British company General Electric and the American firm Pratt and Whitney.

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