More gloom for workers

Workers in the Black Country faced more jobs misery today with staff being axed at Wolverhampton Homes and flexi-time introduced at Oldbury steel factory Metsec.

Wolverhampton Homes, the group which manages the city's 26,700 council houses, is to shed 10 posts on top of 36 which were scrapped during 2008.

The organisation, which employs 800 people,is blaming the cuts on a lack of government funding.

Sue Kunynec, human resources director at the group, said: "We have to bridge a budget gap of £2 million for this financial year and we will have similar budget pressures for the next couple of years.

"The level of funding available from the Government to the council to fund housing services in the city has barely increased in cash terms since we started in 2005 - every year we have had to make savings to meet inflation."

Meanwhile workers at Oldbury steel factory Metsec have been put on flexi hours in a bid to avoid further redundancies.

Fifty workers lost their jobs at the firm in November with bosses blaming the slowdown in the construction industry.

Staff have now agreed to work flexible shifts, determined according to the amount of work coming in in a particular week.

Managing director Erle Andrews said it was the only way to avoid laying more workers off.

"We have agreed this with our staff and we think that if the market stays as it is now, it will mean we won't have to make any more redundancies," he said.

"At the moment we are still doing the usual hours, if demand from our customers drops then we will have to cut down on hours."

Metsec Plc, based in Broadwell Road, is a specialist cold roll-forming company which makes and engineers products, including frames and beams for buildings. It employs 370 people in Oldbury.