A GIANT defence contractor in Basildon has announced it will be cutting up to 25 per cent of its workers.

Selex Galileo, in Christopher Martin Road, has revealed the company has no choice to slash its workforce after falling defence spending in the UK and abroad and fewer numbers of orders placed compared to those expected in 2012. This means more than 150 people of the 676 employed could be without a job in the early part of 2013.

Selex has said it will do everything in its power to avoid compulsory redundancies, and if they are necessary, support will be provided.

Selex started a collective consultation with employee representatives, through Unite the trade union and Joint Consultative Committee, on Tuesday before speaking with individual employees over the coming weeks. Specific details on the amount of workers leaving and when they will be leaving will be announced in these meetings.

Measures have been ongoing for several months to help reduce some of the workload issues. These include stopping outside recruitment, taking work from other Selex sites, sending employees to other sites and not replacing leavers. However, to ensure competitiveness going forward, the company has been forced to announce the reductions.

Cuts are not only affecting Basildon, with 25 per cent of workers also set to lose their jobs at the base in Portsmouth, where there are only 35 workers.

Selex in Basildon currently has 24 apprentices, seven graduates and three industrial placements, none of which will be affected by the cuts. It will not affect the delivery of any programmes or contracts underway.

Mike Gilbert, Deputy Senior Vice President of Electro-Optics Land and Naval, said: “With budgets for defence equipment falling around the world, moving forward we have to be extremely competitive on price to secure future contracts. This hard decision to reduce our workforce is unfortunately necessary to ensure our survival in such a tough marketplace.”