Rolls Royce and Boeing cut jobs in US

Jet engine maker Rolls-Royce plans to cut 520 jobs this year through voluntary resignations or redundancies, the company said in Indianapolis.

With commercial engine orders down 18% since 2001, the company will trim 11.8% of its 4,400 hourly and salaried positions, officials said. Most of the cuts are expected in July and August.

Commercial airlines have cut orders, hammering the company in Indianapolis. Orders from the military have remained steady, accounting for about 40% of the plant’s $1.3bn (€1.15bn) in annual sales.

“After (the attacks of) 9-11 we waited for the rebound to happen in the airline industry, and it just never did,” said spokesman John Brown.

The company delivered 685 commercial engines in 2001 but has orders in hand for only 561 this year, Brown said. Similar volumes are projected over the next two years.

Meanwhile, about 860 Boeing workers were laid off in Seattle yesterday, and the company handed out 60-day redundancy notices to another 845 employees.

The scheduled job cuts came as Washington and other US states submitted bids for the proposed Boeing 7E7 jetliner assembly plant, which would employ an estimated 1,200 workers.

Most of the new redundancy notices were issued to workers in Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division, Boeing spokesman Bill Cogswell said. The rest were employees in the company’s support division, Shared Services, and other Boeing businesses, he said.

The effective date for the new layoffs will be August 22.

So far, Boeing has cut 33,890 jobs under a payroll reduction plan that started in December 2001. The latest round will bring the company close to its initial target of cutting 35,000 jobs.

But Cogswell said: “Additional reductions are possible due to continued weakness in the commercial airlines market, but we have not revised our employment guidance.”