Offshoring via the backdoor

Rolls-Royce, the iconic luxury car manufacturer which now predominantly builds aircraft engines, owes much of its success to the thousands of highly skilled UK workers who’ve made the business the bastion of world-class engineering it is today.

 
In a short-term bid to cut costs amid profit losses, however, Rolls-Royce announced a global restructuring exercise last year which would see the axing of 2,600 jobs and has already led to the proposed closure of Derby’s precision manufacturing facility and the turbine machining facility in Ansty, Warwickshire.

 
Today (March 20), Rolls-Royce announced it would be opening a new design facility in India, adding 500 new jobs, which Unite believes is nothing more than the offshoring of high-tech engineering jobs via the backdoor.

 
“We warned when Rolls-Royce announced plans to cut jobs last year that it could result in the offshoring of high-tech engineering jobs,” said Unite regional officer Tony Tinley.

 
“It now appears that this is the case and that the company’s global restructuring exercise is being used as cover to offshore jobs via the back door,” he added.

 
“Today’s announcement will be good news for workers in India, but it will be viewed as a kick in the teeth by UK workers and apprentices who face an increasingly uncertain future.

 
“The UK workforce is world class and has proved time again to be at the cutting edge of engineering,” Tinley went on to say. “They have shown their loyalty in building up Rolls-Royce and it’s time the company repaid that loyalty with concrete assurances about long-term engineering in the UK.”

 
The company’s aerospace division is the second largest engine manufacturer in the world, providing the engines for the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350 jetliners.

 
When Rolls-Royce first threatened job cuts in November of last year, Unite national officer Ian Waddell warned that the UK cannot afford to turn away such a highly skilled workforce.

 
“Experience suggests that many of those who leave engineering are lost forever,” he said. “We must do all we can to keep skilled people in manufacturing if the UK is to succeed.”