Britain’s Gurkha soldiers to lose jobs
January 17th, 2012 - 6:53 pm ICT by IANSLondon, Jan 17 (IANS) One in eight Gurkha soldiers in Britain will lose their job under a plan to make 4,000 members of the armed forces redundant, the Telegraph reported Tuesday.
More than 400 Gurkhas will be among 2,800 soldiers to lose their army jobs, while the Royal Air Force (RAF) is cutting 1,000 and the Navy 500.
The defence ministry has sent over 14,000 notices to personnel in each of the three services offering them voluntary redundancy but it is expected some compulsory redundancies will have to be made, the newspaper said.
Soldiers serving in Afghanistan are among those to receive the notices, although they will be protected from compulsory redundancy.
The 3,400-member brigade of Gurkhas has been more vulnerable to redundancies after their terms of service changed four years ago, allowing them to serve for 22 years rather than the previous 15 years.
Nearly all Gurkhas chose to extend their contracts, which increased the number in the brigade. The defence ministry said the changes made it more expensive to employ them, making them more vulnerable to cost-cutting redundancies.
RAF and Royal Navy commanders hope that this will be the final round of redundancies but the army is likely to announce at least one more tranche of job losses.
- 150 Gurkhas to lose jobs under UK Strategic Defence, Security Review cuts - Apr 05, 2011
- Gurkhas axed as Britain reduces troops - Apr 04, 2011
- Gurkhas get axe as Britain reduces troops (Lead) - Apr 04, 2011
- 10,000 British troops in Afghanistan told they face the sack - Mar 02, 2011
- Gurkha veteran warns other nations would hire brigade if UK rejects - Sep 05, 2010
- Britain says no plans to axe Gurkhas - Oct 20, 2010
- British Navy cuts 1,000 jobs - Oct 01, 2011
- Brit soldiers serving in Libya, Afghanistan could face redundancies - Apr 02, 2011
- Britain to sack nearly 100 air force trainee pilots - Feb 14, 2011
- British military officials using choppers as taxis - Aug 21, 2011
- Britain to axe 20,000 troops - Jul 06, 2012
- Gurkhas take pension battle to European rights court - Jun 20, 2011
- US announces defence budget slash - Jan 27, 2012
- Retired Gurkha soldiers lose court case over British army pensions - Oct 14, 2010
- US soldier accused of smuggling drugs into South Korea - Jul 19, 2012
Tags: 22 years, afghanistan, armed forces, army, brigade of gurkhas, compulsory redundancies, contracts, defence ministry, gurkha soldiers, job losses, jobs, london jan, raf, royal air force, royal navy, telegraph, tranche, voluntary redundancy