Halcrow to cut up to 269 jobs

Engineering consultant Halcrow has announced plans to cut up to 269 jobs across the UK and Ireland following a decline in its workload.

The firm said it had started a 30-day consultancy period with staff in response to “continuing economic difficulties” in the region and anticipated redundancies across 19 offices.

A company statement said: “While there is growing discussion in the media, and among economic commentators, that the wider economic situation might be improving, it is Halcrow’s belief that the engineering consultancy sector will continue to see reduced activity, or perhaps even a further deterioration, through 2010 and beyond. With this in mind, Halcrow needs to take action to properly balance its resourcing with its current and anticipated work load.”

Peter Gammie, Chief executive, added: “It is extremely regrettable that we have had to go down this route. Since the early days of the global economic downturn, we have worked hard to minimise the effect of recession on Halcrow. However, we can no longer sustain current staffing levels.

“This difficult decision was not made lightly and throughout the consultation period, we will make every possible effort to reduce the number of redundancies and assist where we can with people’s personal arrangements. As a business, we remain focused on our long-term well being and on our clients and on their day-to-day requirements for the delivery of their projects.”