New jobs at Hucknall Rolls-Royce – but unions say nothing has changed on long-term guarantees

However, Union representatives say these are just replacing service jobs previously lost when the plant was sold by Rolls-Royce to ITP Aero last year.

And they add that nothing has changed in regards to the long-term future guarantees of more than 700 jobs at the site.

A Union spokesperson said: “These jobs are part of the transfer that occurred when we moved from Rolls-Royce to ITP Aero because we used to have all those services as part of Rolls-Royce and now we need new ones, so they are new jobs but they are just replacing ones that were there before.

“There are some new jobs, the workload has increased a bit and we are setting some people on.

“However, we lost 127 in 2020 as Rolls-Royce reacted to the pandemic, but now some jobs are coming back because the work’s coming back.

“But there’s still no guarantees on the long-term job security.

“However, we have signed some long-term contracts with Rolls-Royce for the parts we were making before and that’s it at the moment.

“We’re at a crossroads right now with ITP and we’ll be looking at opportunities going forward because there’s an option to be competitive on pay but that could be at the detriment to the business, so there’s a balance to be struck.

“So no change at the moment while we work through this.”

As the Dispatch reported last year, ITP Aero has been bought for £1.5 billion by a new consortium led by Bain.

But at the time, a spokesman for ITP Aero said it was too early to say what this would mean for the future of sites like Hucknall – leaving workers there still no clearer on their long-term futures.

ITP Aero bought the Hucknall plant earlier this year, ending 80 years of the Rolls-Royce name in the town.

But ITP Aero was itself owned by Rolls-Royce – which was trying to sell it.

This meant that anything owned by ITP Aero, including the Hucknall site, also remained up for sale, meaning there were no long-term guarantees for the workers there.

ITP Aero has recently announced its financial results for 2021, with revenues of €915 million in 2021 and a net income of €67 million.

This includes revenue generated by the Hucknall plant.

Ian Williamson, general manager for ITP Aero UK, said: “2021 was an important year for ITP Aero, both in terms of starting to see a recovery from the impact of Covid-19 on commercial aviation, and of course due to the integration of our Hucknall facility.

“The integration of Hucknall has reinforced ITP Aero’s business significantly in terms of employee numbers, complimentary product portfolio and capabilities.

“Over the past year, the team in Hucknall has grown in numbers, having employed over 60 new people since the end of May 2021.

“The ITP Aero UK team will play a key role in the future of our business and in capturing new growth opportunities.”