Hardship payments of £2,500 per person will be made to redundant
steelworkers, the Government announced last week, after Corus confirmed it is
forging ahead with its redundancy programme.
The steel giant intends to make 6,050 staff redundant following its 90-day
consultation period, which ends on 14 May.
An estimated 12,000 steel workers will benefit from the Government’s £135m
package designed to help the steel communities in England and Wales.
All affected steelworkers can qualify, even if they have already found other
jobs, and the payments will be in addition to Corus’ redundancy package.
Redundancy payments for long- serving steelworkers are typically around £20,000
to £25,000.
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Corus rejected union proposals to postpone job losses to the end of the
year, when economic conditions might have improved.
Allan Johnston, personnel director of Corus, told Personnel Today in
February, "Negative publicity is inevitable – you don’t expect laurel
wreaths for putting out this sort of information. What we need to do now, in
the middle of an emotional period, is a really professional job and look after
the people as best we can."
