10 AUG 2020

150 JOBS TO GO AT LAING O’ROURKE

Laing O’Rourke has revealed plans to cut 150 jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The measures were announced at a live webinar to its European staff this morning. (10/8/20).

The figure represents just under 2% of its 8,000 staff, with the firm saying most of the losses will be coming from back office roles at its main UK office in Dartford.

Redundancy consultations with affected staff are underway, and the company said there “may also be some jobs impacted elsewhere across the business where a reduction in work in specific roles or sectors is anticipated”.

Josh Murray, group director, human capital, said: “In March we moved quickly to protect our business from the pandemic, and since then, have been open with our people that our priority was to return projects to full productivity, and reinstate everyone’s full pay and benefits as quickly as possible.

“That’s been achieved, and we are making good progress on site, but unfortunately, we will still have to make changes that impact around 150 roles, to help us manage costs in the current market while still investing in our strategic plans.

“The resilience we’ve built into our business over recent years has served us well, but we now must rebuild these buffers on the back of Covid-19.

“In the current difficult market conditions, with a range of new requirements on the business as a result of the crisis, and with the possibility of further shocks, we simply cannot afford to do everything the same way we had planned.

“We have done everything we can to limit the impact on our people, which is why we first brought all staff back from furlough and restored everyone’s pay and entitlements to pre-Covid levels.

“Today we’ve taken the necessary step to inform staff that we are developing proposals that may require 150 current roles to go between now and October.”

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