MoD to cut 1000 staff jobs.
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7058708.stm

Almost a third of civilian posts at the London headquarters, off Whitehall, will be cut by 2010, said the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union. Admin, finance and personnel staff will be affected by the cuts. The union reacted with "fury" to the news, claiming that new senior jobs were being created while other posts are being cut back.

It said £50m of ongoing savings which could be reinvested in operations would be released per year by reducing the head office staff by 25% - which would be the loss of about 1,000 civilian jobs and 300 military posts. The PCS warned further cuts to civilian support staff, as well as the disruption of relocating staff, would undermine the MoD's ability to support the armed forces.

Surely that's not 300 military posts lost, but 300 people back to the front-line where they are needed?

What MoD Support would that be then?

"......the MoD's ability to support the armed forces"

Riiiggggggggghhhhhhhhhht.....:hmm:

Didn't they just spend a gazillion pounds building a place to put all these people? That was good planning...

Or is that another place for other people to "support" the forces from the comfort of their $1000 chairs?

They will be cutting staff at High Wycombe soon, so they may be able to give everybody a desk and chair in a position that they can find day after day.

Airborne Aircrew: they didn't build the place, they re-fitted it, then started closing all the other London buildings and started squeezing everyone in to the one. Not everyone fits, it seems. Great planning.

Interesting how we suddenly don't need all their jobs doing...

In keeping with recent tradition...

If Defence is as overdrawn as is rumoured, I can't see £50m being spent on operations - it'll be put towards the deficit of those annoying ops.

Woah, steady guys. There's a few of us MOD civs doing a worthwhile job, training the techies of tomorrow for example.

Oh wait, we're about to be sold off like unwanted cattle aren't we :rolleyes:

What will they do with all those chairs that were procured at such expense? :E

It is a cull long overdue. When I served in the Ministry there was a buff- coloured phone book that contained the names and numbers of all those in MOD listed against phones. In common with many others I had nothing better to do one week than count the names, divide by three to arrive at roughly the number supporting the air force and then calculate how long it would take to get them all airborne in the aircraft currently on inventory. The answer was six weeks - not much of a measure of anything, I guess, but it passed a week away!

"Interesting how we suddenly don't need all their jobs doing..."

Not really, its a case that the MOD has been told by Treasury to cut 25% of its posts whether it likes it or not! The jobs will still exist, but they'll be done by fewer people.

As usual people turn this into a vitriolic rant against the MOD CS. I fail to understand why people in the forces, who pride themselves on possessing the last bastion of decent manners, can be so shockingly rude to people who have made the clearly fatal error of not joining the forces, and instead doing a normal desk job instead. Most MOD CS are decent people who try to help as best they can, many have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans and for every jobsworth out there, you'll find hundreds of decent people.
If this was the RAF losing 1000 people now, you'd be screaming bloody murder. How about having the decency to accept that these people face a very uncertain future tonight, and stop gloating about it?

and how many of the ranks in MOD have a front line role? Most mil ranks start at SO2 and rise to 4*. How many of these jobs are there merely to maintain the rank structure needed to justify 3* deployed Force Cdr posts. Read across to HQs and just how over ranked are the forces? Anyone see the Bremner Ford Fortune spoof interview with the RN Admiral on Sunday ...

Jimlad1 - It's not about you not being part of the forces, but the RAF is losing 1000's too - not so much by cuts anymore but by walking. I'm only going to take so much mate, I've worked hard to get where I am and yet I try to progress my career in an ever diminishing service. If the RAF get cut then you get cut too. That's how it is - sounds fair to me, live with it - guys in the RAF have been living with it for years.

Jimlad

By my reckoning, the RAF was 90 something thousand back in the early 90's, now down to 40ish thousand. That equates to about 3000 per year decrease in numbers for 15 years or so, being conservative. I admit that a lot of that decrease has been voluntary, but on the basis that the MOD are still cutting the RAF , then if it had not been voluntary there would have been even more redundancies.

I am sure that there is still scope to lose a lot of air ranks as well, but I do not see the MOD sacking them unfortunately. The RAF is so top heavy it is ridiculous, not just with air ranks, but that we have one officer to every two airmen ........


Y_G

Ya whoooooo such big news............ not.

Year ago 47,000 raf service persons. As of April 2008 we will be 41,000.

Looking at the manning interenet site promotions are not happening because there are no Cat A or Cat B or even Cat C folks to promote in some trades.

Well the black hole has begun folks and it is only going to grow. The way around it is to offer the older guys more years....... oh they are trying that at present an extra 3 years to some ranks in some trades to plug the gaps. Well the recycle bins are full in my office.

So what next promotion for guys after 2 or 3 years in rank......!

Sorry the black hole is getting bigger by the day. I would like to care but I cant' give a to$$ 19 days to do.

A Civvy asked me today why am I leaving what would it take to stay....I told her ....we have gone too far and ...it's now too late..... the raf back is broken..I have no feelings for the RAF any more.

Just dont care lost the plot given up totally. 25 years service cut 5 years short. oh and the 3 extra they tried to offer......Boll0cks.

Just another rat who's had more than enough.

So, I just need to get this clear in my mind.

We tax payers have just committed to spend £2.3 billion over 30 years to refurbish and maintain MOD Main Building in Whitehall, and now the government has decided to cut 1000 MOD jobs in that building and move another 800 civilians away from it!

Another master stroke of forward planning! Or maybe the Scottish Office will move in to take up the space?

I wonder when the Treasury will see similar job cuts and large numbers of its Civil Servants being moved away from it's London offices?

LFFC - In answer to your final quesiton: at about the same time Satan telephones British Gas to say that his heating appears to have failed and that he'd welcome an early visit since there's a thin sheen of frost over his entire domain....

Archimedes,

Actually, I think I've just found the answer in the Lyons Report (look at Table 6.1), and the Treasury are taking a hit - 18 people out of a potential 1152!

It is a personal tragedy for those involved - I can only hope that some of those who are affected are those responsible for:

1. Overzealous penny pinching: actuals?
2. Closing bases, units, disbanding/merging Regiments
3. S**te kit: fuel tank protection?
4. JPA
5. Being overly partisan wrt going to war and supporting politicians for their
own gain
6. Appalling pension/illness payouts to injured frontliners
7. Closing military hospitals.