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Thursday, November 20, 2008, 07:59
Workers in Bristol are waiting to hear if they’ll be affected by plans to axe the jobs in 2009.
The firm, which has 3,500 staff at Patchway making defence aircraft engines, said it was responding to the global economic slowdown and delays to projects by Airbus and Boeing.
Rolls currently employs about 39,000 people worldwide, of whom 60 per cent work in the UK, but it did not give further details of where jobs might be lost.
In a statement, the firm said: “Rolls-Royce has been reviewing the possible impact of current economic uncertainties, delays on individual programmes, such as the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787, and the benefits of the group's continuing focus on efficiency."
It was announced at the beginning of November that Boeing would delay the first flight of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft until 2009, having previously aimed to get it off the ground before the end of 2008.
Last week, the head of the European aerospace group EADS said there was a possibility deliveries of some Airbus A380 super-jumbo aircraft may be delayed by one year until 2010.
Rolls-Royce said it wanted to give its employees "an early indication of the likely scale" of the job cuts in 2009.
"We are determined to to maintain our focus on cost reduction and competitiveness as the world economy enters a challenging period," said Sir John Rose, Rolls-Royce's chief executive.
The firm said it had started consulting unions about the proposed job losses.
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