A union has warned that hundreds of jobs are at risk under plans being considered by gas distribution company Cadent.
Staff at the company’s Leicester and Hinckley operations are being consulted over restructuring plans.
Cadent has not said how many posts will be affected but the Unison union says it could affect 200 people.
READ MORE: {}
The company has a large office in Hinckley and some staff based at Aylestone Road in the city of Leicester.
Union leaders say the job cuts are ‘totally unnecessary’ and must be urgently reconsidered.
It says the roles affected are in customer services, technical, scheduling and dispatch, repair planning and supervisory teams and jobs could be lost despite past assurances by the company.
Unison told LeicestershireLive that Cadent had previously flagged a potential restructure of management posts, acknowledging that the business had too many.
However the union has warned the restructure will hit the lowest paid employees in the company leading to significant reduction in customer facing roles.
Most Read
The union has called on Cadent to rethink its plans and engage in a meaningful and open way while pledging that it will not make any compulsory redundancies.
Unison East Midlands regional organiser Ed Bratt said: “The plans are simply irresponsible, unnecessary and led by greed at a business which already generates huge profits.
“Making brutal cuts like this will have a serious impact on the local economy, as well as the company’s customers, who will struggle to get access to engineers if they have leaks or other safety issues.
“These proposals will also be a major blow to staff at Cadent who will be understandably worried about losing their jobs in a pandemic, during which they’ve been rightly praised as essential keys workers.”
A Cadent spokesperson said: “As part of Cadent’s ongoing business transformation programme, we announced the start of the consultation period for the restructure of our business support departments across our networks.
“Over the next 45 days, staff are being asked to comment on the restructure of their department, with the implementation of the new structures and ways of working from August 1.
“Whilst this process is ongoing, we are unable to comment on the number of roles that will be impacted.
Don’t miss
“This process is the continuation of work that has already taken place over the last 18 months and our commitment to creating a more agile and efficient business.
“We will continue to maintain our high standards of service whilst we transition through this process and there will be no impact to our customers.”