Metronet Rail will axe up to 290 full-time administrative and middle management positions as part of a streamlining exercise.
The firm responsible for the renewal of two-thirds of the London Underground, Metronet is seeking a review of its public private partnership (PPP) contract as a result of increasing overspending, reported to be more than £1bn.
Metronet said it would reduce the number of management levels between the senior management of the business and the shop floor.
Andrew Lezala, chief executive at Metronet said: “While I have already introduced significant change within Metronet, it has been necessary for us to conduct a further review to ensure that we have the right number of people in place – doing the right jobs in our business.”
Reacting to the announcement, transport union RMT said workers would not pay the price for Metronet’s failures.
Bob Crow, general secretary of RMT, said: “It is Metronet that needs to be sacked, not our members. Metronet’s death throes should not be allowed to decimate the skilled maintenance workforce that will still be needed long after Metronet is buried.
“We warned months ago that the consortium would try to claw back losses from its over-runs by cutting back on work if it failed to wring more money out of the public purse.
“We have already beaten off attempts to outsource jobs on the cheap, and we are telling Metronet today that if even one RMT job is axed we will be in dispute,” Crow concluded.
