TEESDALE'S largest employer says 200 jobs could be axed over the next three years following a review of operations.
Employees at GlaxoSmithKline in Barnard Castle were called into a meeting last Thursday to be told that proposed changes at the site, in Harmire Road, could affect jobs.
The pharmaceutical giant has since confirmed that the proposals could affect 200 roles. However, the shock announcement is not affecting the ongoing construction of a £92million aseptic sterile facility.
Labour MPs have already blamed Brexit for the job losses, while Barnard Castle mayor Cllr Sandra Moorhouse described the cuts as "devastating".
She added: "This is not good news. It is a blow to the town and it is a blow to the people affected."
A GSK spokesperson said: “We regularly assess operations across our global manufacturing network and as part of a strategic review at GSK Barnard Castle, we are proposing changes that may affect employees at the site. This is subject to appropriate consultation and no decisions have been made.
“As the consultation is currently underway, we do not know how many people will be affected. However, the current proposals we are discussing with employees and their representatives include a reduction of 200 roles over the next three years out of a total site population of over 1,100 people.
“We will continue to support those affected by the news and will consult with them and their representatives. As a supplier of medicines to patients around the world, Barnard Castle remains key to our global manufacturing network.”
Teesdale MP Helen Goodman raised the matter during a business, energy, and industrial strategy committee debate in the House of Commons yesterday. Ms Goodman blamed Brexit for the cuts.
She said: “A few months ago, GSK’s chairman told me that the one-off cost of preparation for Brexit would be £70 million and the on-going costs would be £50 million a year. Today the GSK plant in Barnard Castle is announcing a restructuring programme to cut costs which will mean the loss of dozens of jobs.
“Does my hon. Friend agree that it is far more important to have regulatory alignment in the interests of jobs in modern manufacturing than to maintain the Prime Minister’s doomed attempt at unity with extreme hard-right Brexiteers?”
Labour’s Rachel Reeves, who is chairwoman of the committee, agreed with Ms Goodman.
She said: “I can sense my hon. Friend’s frustration that jobs will be lost in her constituency because of the risks of Brexit. GSK has made it very clear that Brexit will cost it a lot of money. If it is testing its drugs in the UK, it may no longer have access to European markets because those drugs will not be recognised unless they are tested in mainland Europe. That is creating new costs as GSK is having to set up new testing facilities in the rest of Europe.
“If there are cost increases, it will seek to cut costs elsewhere and the consequences of that will be borne by my hon. Friend’s constituents in Bishop Auckland and also by patients in the UK as a whole who may not have access to the drugs.
“As far as I can see, leaving the European Union will have no benefits for the pharmaceutical sector, or – but most important – for patients.”
Barnard Castle is one of GSK’s biggest secondary manufacturing sites which supplies nearly half a million packs of products per day to 140 global markets.
In February last year, major development plans to expand the site’s aseptic manufacturing capability were given the go ahead. It has been confirmed that this would not be affected by the proposals.
A GSK spokesperson added: “Over the past two years, we have announced a number of investments at our Barnard Castle site, all of which are progressing to plan.”
The £92million investment at the Teesdale site is funding the construction of an aseptic sterile facility which will support the manufacture of existing and new biopharmaceutical assets.
Work has already began on Q-block and it is hoped that it will be up and running from 2020. The new building will include production, storage, support and office accommodation. It is being built on the former site of the A and B-block where penicillin and Vitamin B12 was manufactured. The A and B-block were built in the 1940s as the first manufacturing and packing suites on the site but were demolished more than 20 years ago.
The new facility is part of a wider investment by GSK of £275million which is also benefiting some of the drug giant’s other sites such as Ware in Hertfordshire and Montrose in Scotland.
