BR seeks to cut extra 4,000 jobs

BRITISH RAIL is seeking 4,000 redundancies by the end of September - in addition to the 7,000 staff due to leave by the end of this month. The new round of job losses will leave BR with about 124,000 employees.

Last November, BR sought 5,000 redundancies. Almost double that number of people applied, but only 7,000 were allowed to leave. BR hopes to find enough volunteers to avoid compulsory redundancies in the next wave of job losses, which the corporation has yet to announce.

It has refused to give the unions assurances that all redundancies will be voluntary. The main rail union, RMT, is balloting members on strike action over the prospect of compulsory redundancies.

The effects of the recession and a cut of nearly a quarter in next year's government grant for subsidised train services mean BR is deeply into the red. In the financial year ending 31 March it is expected to lose at least double last year's pounds 145m, and the unions fear up to 20,000 redundancies by the time privatisation begins in April 1994.

A BR spokesman would not confirm the figure of 4,000, but said: 'When we announced this year's redundancy programme, we made it clear that further redundancies may be necessary.'

Richard Rosser, general secretary of the 40,000-strong Transport Salaried Staffs' Association, said: 'We had been promised there would be no further redundancies in 1993. This is part of the spiral of decline that is worrying for the future of the railways.'

BR appointed franchise development directors yesterday for the first seven lines due to be offered to the private sector. The Government has set a target of autumn 1994 for the first of the seven to be franchised out, but that is widely regarded as optimistic.

Safety fears, page 2