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Search forFirm axing nearly 30 city staff
Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 07:15
Consultation has started with employees affected as the company aims to shed 50 staff across its bases in Exeter and Truro.
The cuts come as the city-based firm concentrates on its general building and maintenance operations and moves away from the sort of large-scale construction projects that have included The Senate office block in Southernhay and Exwick Heights Primary School.
Confirming that 27 posts were at risk in Exeter, a Rok spokeswoman said: "We are currently engaged in a consultation process whereby we are interviewing those concerned to discuss their situations.
"As we announced when we reported our half-year results, we are reshaping the business to supply more general building and maintenance services and to do less of the traditional contracting for which we were perhaps best known in the South West.
"We are accelerating that process now to bring our Westcountry offices into line with others across the UK where we have smaller teams focused on repairs and maintenance rather than larger high-value contracts, although we still do a certain amount of this work from selected offices, Exeter being one."
Rok has 63 offices around the country and employs 5,500 people nationwide.
It is continuing to recruit about 50 people a month across the UK.
The spokeswoman added: "The model of having our own skilled tradesmen and women working in local communities all over the country is paying off in the current climate as people are tending to repair and refurbish rather than build from scratch. But it means that in some of our longer-established businesses we have had to change the mix of roles and skills to meet these demands. Where possible we are trying to redeploy or relocate people but where we have to let them go, we are doing what we can to help them look for employment elsewhere."
The Exeter jobs under threat include both office and site-based roles.
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