Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
Rolls-Royce has announced to cut 4,600 jobs over the next two years as part of a restructuring programme.
Middle managers and back-office staff are to bear the brunt of the cuts, which are expected to hit its Derby base hard, reports BBC.
The engineering firm is refocusing its business on civil aerospace, defence and power systems.
About a third of the job cuts are expected to happen by the end of this year, Rolls-Royce said.
The programme is expected to continue throughout 2019, with full implementation by mid-2020.
Rolls-Royce said that the programme would save it £400 million a year by the end of 2020.
Chief executive Warren East said: "Our world-leading technology gives Rolls-Royce the potential to generate significant profitable growth.
"The creation of a more streamlined organisation with pace and simplicity at its heart will enable us to deliver on that promise, generating higher returns while being able to invest for the future."
Chris Williamson, Labour MP for Derby North, said the job cuts were "a damning indictment" of the government's hands-off industrial policy.
"Currently we have private shareholders directing the fate of some of Britain's most premier firms, with total disregard for the economic needs of the country. The government has to intervene," he said.
In February 2017, the jet engine-maker reported a record loss of £4.6 billion.
In June 2017, Rolls-Royce cut a deal with unions to safeguard 7,000 front-line engineering jobs in the East Midlands for five years and invest in UK aerospace facilities.