Quarter of bus-building jobs at risk

Nearly a quarter of the workforce at a major engineering company in the North are facing redundancy.

After meeting with staff, bus-builder Wrightbus said it had entered a 90-day consultation period over 235 redundancies.

The company, based in Ballymena, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, said the redundancy decision was taken because of a slowdown in market requirements in the face of the global economic climate.

Managing director Mark Nodder said: “The difficult decision has been taken to safeguard the long-term future of the Wright Group.

“By acting now, we hope that the company will be able to weather the current economic downturn and emerge stronger for the future.”