20 jobs to go at Tata Steel in the Black Country

Tata Steel has started the formal consultation process with trade unions over the proposed restructuring of the UK business.

It is seeking 19 at the Steelpark site at Wednesfield and one at the rail terminal site at Round Oak, Brierley Hill.

At the Steelpark, where around 400 are based, the axe would fall on 13 shop floor workers and five management and one other post.

The information sharing and consultation process will continue for a minimum of 45 days.

A Tata Steel spokesman said: “As required, we have submitted the headline numbers of roles that would be impacted at each of our UK sites, and shared these through the UK Steel Committee.

“We understand what an unsettling time this is for our people and we are determined to give every support to our employees, contractor partners and communities with the help of the transition board."

Kevin Faulkner, organiser for steelworkers' union Community at the Steelpark, said: "The union is pressing for the redundancies to be on a voluntary basis."

He said the main impact of the decarbonisation restructuring, involving the closure of blast furnaces at Port Talbot, would be on the grades of coil steel supplied to the Steelpark. After the closure the steel would be coming from India and Holland.

The consultation involves up to 2,800 redundancies at Tata Steel across the UK with around 2,500 roles to be impacted in the next 18 months.

Tata Steel is moving from blast furnaces in South Wales to green steelmaking in the UK.

Port Talbot’s two high-emission blast furnaces and coke ovens would close in a phased manner with the first blast furnace closing around mid-2024 and the remaining heavy end assets would wind down during the second half of 2024. The proposal also includes a wider restructuring of other locations and functions across the company.

Its plan is intended to reverse more than a decade of losses and transition from the legacy blast furnaces to a more sustainable, green steel business.

The company has said it will endeavour to maximise voluntary redundancies and proposes to commit in excess of £130 million to a comprehensive support package for affected employees, including redundancy terms, community programmes, skills training and job-seeking initiatives

This is in addition to the £100 million funding for the transition board set up with UK and Welsh governments to support affected employees, contractors and communities.