Marconi decision was "foolish"

Union leaders at UK telecoms multinational Marconi, which last month announced it is to axe 1,600 UK jobs, have been giving details of where the cuts would fall. The company had confirmed that it was going to close its research and development site in Poole, Dorset, with the loss of 570 jobs.

Manufacturing, science and finance union MSF said 164 jobs would go at the Marconi site in Liverpool, 322 in Coventry, 85 in Chelmsford, 20 in Nottingham and 10 in Cambridge. A further 500 administrative and management jobs would go at sites across the country.

Union leaders condemned the job cuts calling them a "disaster". Keith Hazlewood, of the GMB general union, said: "The GMB urges a move towards strong legislation to protect our workers against this kind of corporate crime."

Roger Lyons, general secretary of MSF, accused the Marconi board of wrongly getting rid of defence electronics which guaranteed "a steady stream of income". "This is an absolute disaster for the workforce and comes as a result of foolish decisions by the board, not least pulling out of manufacturing in search of fool's gold in telecoms," he said.

The company announced 4,000 jobs would go worldwide as part of attempts to restore its fortunes after posting a £61 million loss last year. These cuts come on top of 3,000 jobs axed worldwide earlier this year.

Marconi Facts

Year end March 2001

* Sales: £6,653m +22.4%

* Pre-tax loss: £61m * Average number of employees: 52,000