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LOCAL POLITICIANS MEET WITH SSE TO DISCUSS JOB LOSSES
The Scottish National Party's Ms Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Perthshire South & Kinross-shire, and Mr Pete Wishart MP, Member of Parliament for Perth & North Perthshire, met with John Stewart, UK HR Director, and Greg Clarke, Public Affairs during a visit this morning (Friday) to SSE's head offices in Perth.
The primary purpose of the meeting was to discuss the local impact of the Perth-based energy giant's recently announced plan to shed 500 jobs across their UK operations.
Speaking following the visit, Ms Cunningham said:
“SSE has about 20,000 employees across the UK as a whole, 4500 in Scotland with around 2200 of those being in Perth, making SSE an extremely important employer in Perthshire.
“In these circumstances, there is always a concern that with such a high concentration of posts, Perth would be disproportionately hit by any reduction in job numbers and we were informed that it is anticipated that the 500 posts that are being shed will be distributed on a roughly pro rata basis across all sites.
“That, of course means that in Perth were are looking at losing around 150 posts.
“The positive news is that there is every indication that these will all be covered by voluntary redundancies with the offer already over subscribed.
“Staff will know by the 28th of May who has been selected for voluntary redundancy and those leaving will do so by the end of June.”
Mr Wishart continued:
“SSE have put two different voluntary redundancy offers on the table. One for those still in the final salary scheme and another for those outwith that scheme.
“SSE are very aware of the dangers of losing too many from the one part of the business and the downside of having knowledge and experience leaving the organisation. We were assured that they will not release people whose departure could damage the business.
“I am relieved that all the job losses that are being sought will be met through voluntary redundancy packages and I hope that we can soon get to the stage where this important employer is once again growing its employee numbers.”
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