Airbus has confirmed it is planning to temporarily furlough around 1,500 staff at its Filton site.
The aerospace manufacturer said two-thirds of its engineering, engineering support, and support function employees would be put on the Government’s Job retention Scheme.
The company said it was working with trade unions to apply the scheme, which involves the Government paying 80 per cent of wages to staff affected.
Furloughing will happen in two waves of three weeks and Filton plant employees will not be impacted, according to Airbus.
The plane maker said in a statement: “Airbus confirms it has agreed with its trade union colleagues to apply the Government’s Job Retention Scheme to roughly two thirds of its engineering, engineering support and support function employees at its Filton site.”
The news comes a week after Airbus applied the Government’s Job Retention Scheme for approximately 3,200 production and production-support employees at its commercial aircraft site in Broughton, North Wales.
In April, the chief executive of the company reportedly said Airbus was "bleeding cash at unprecedented speed" because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Guillaume Faury allegedly warned staff the survival of Airbus could be "in question" if the company didn't "act now", according to the Reuters news agency.
A month before lockdown, the company announced it would be axing thousands of jobs and had previously entered the consultation process with it's European works council.
