AA to axe 100 jobs as it announces closure of training centre in Melton Mowbray
The roadside recovery firm will consult with staff on the plans until February 24
THE AA is to axe around 100 jobs and close its national training centre in Melton Mowbray.
The roles at risk of redundancy include management and administration staff.
The job cuts do not affect its roadside operations or customer service staff in its contact centres.
According to the GMB union, staff were told yesterday about the plans, with regional officer Paul Grafton accusing bosses of "squeezing the last drop" out of the business.
He said: "The closure of national training centre will reduce structured training and in the end in our view impact on quality of service delivered by the patrol force.
"We believe the reduction in the numbers of managers and administration staff will also impact on the quality of the service and leave problems that should be dealt with unresolved.
"All these cuts are a direct result of the unsustainable levels of debt left by the previous private equity owners."
The AA said it will be consulting on its plans with staff until February 24 and added the changes were necessary to develop the business.
Simon Breakwell, chief exec, said: "We believe that we can make our business more efficient by concentrating our resources where they are most needed by our customers - on the front line.
"We are looking to streamline some head office management roles by focusing them further on our core priorities.
"I am aware that this will be an unsettling period for those affected but we will offer as much support as we can."
More on money
Last year, the AA warned that it may be forced to raise prices due to higher insurance premium tax costs.
The Government has raised insurance premium tax (IPT) three times from 6 per cent in 2015 to 12 per cent in June.
In August, its share price plunged by 18 per cent after it sacked its boss Bob Mackenzie for gross misconduct after claims he "lashed out" at a colleague in a bar.
But this week the AA said it was "astonished" by the news Mr Mackenzie was taking it to an employment tribunal for wrongful dismissal.
A spokeswoman for the AA added: "We are consulting on reducing some management and head office roles so that we can actually invest more in contact centres and patrols.
"We are also investing more in state of the art training for our patrols so that our brilliant patrols already impressive fix rates can be improved further.
"These moves are all designed to enhance our performance for our customers on the front-line."
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