MAGNOX - the organisation contracted with decommissioning nuclear sites in Berkeley, Oldbury and across the UK - will lose up to 1,600 members of staff.

The cuts, which will include staff, agency and contract roles, will take place before September next year, it was announced on Thursday, May 21.

Approximately 4,500 people work for Magnox at 12 nuclear sites across the UK. Currently 190 members of staff are employed at Berkeley and 340 are employed at Oldbury. Magnox said they were unable to give details of precisely where the cuts would be enacted.

In their official statement Magnox said: "The mission to safely decommission the Magnox sites has always predicted reducing staff numbers over the coming years."

“These proposed reductions arise from planned step downs in the work programme at a number of sites and the implementation of a more streamlined operating model for delivering decommissioning.

"We will seek wherever possible for these reductions to be through voluntary means and we will endeavour to retrain staff in roles where we are currently reliant on agency resources.

"We are now going through a period of formal collective consultation with our recognised trade unions and individual consultation and counselling staff before an appropriate best fit exercise begins."

One of the “recognised trade unions” mentioned is Unite, who, in a statement released on the same day the cuts were announced described the news as “shocking”.

National officer for energy at the union Kevin Coyne said: “Basically, the workforce is shocked by the number of redundancies involved.

“Some redundancies were expected, but not on this scale. It will lead to a loss of vital skills and expertise in the nuclear industry which could have an impact on new nuclear build. 

“We will be seeking an urgent meeting with the company, as we don’t have numbers of who will be affected prior to any consultation taking place. It is shocking news for the workers and their families. We will be campaigning for no compulsory redundancies.” 
 

Penny Wride is the chairwoman of the Berkeley Site Stakeholder Group. She said that due to the nature of the decommissioning process cuts of this nature were anticipated.

“The clue is in the name – decommissioning. This is just part of an ongoing process,” she said.

“Magnox are handling the situation appropriately, ensuring that everybody is aware of what’s going on and putting services in place to help those staff being let go can find relevant employment.

“It does sound awful but it is a completely natural part of the decommissioning process.”