RWE 'to cut 2,500 jobs at its struggling British subsidiary npower'

RWE 'to cut 2,500 jobs at its struggling British subsidiary npower'
By Euronews with Reuters
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German utility RWE reportedly plans to cut about 2,500 jobs at its struggling British subsidiary npower amid customer losses, billing issues and tougher competition.

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Germany utility firm “RWE“http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/8/rwe/ is reportedly about to announce it will cut around 2,500 jobs at :npower”:http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/97798/rwe-npower/, its struggling British subsidiary.

The expected layoffs – mostly in sales and marketing – follow an operating loss for npower of 66 million euros in the first nine months of last year.

It has been hemorrhaging customers – 200,000 between January and November 2015 – in the UK where it was the most complained about of the six biggest energy suppliers last year.

In December, npower was fined 26 million pounds (33.6 million euros) after overcharging customers and improperly handling customer complaints. That was the largest-ever fine for a British power utility.

Npower currently has around 5.4 million customers in Britain, but a problem with its billing process has meant it has been effectively unable to charge some of them. It does not expect the issues to be resolved until the end of 2016.

Parent company RWE is suffering from ultra-low wholesale power prices and has too many coal and gas power stations having failed to invest in renewable energy.

Npower declined to comment on the job cuts reports ahead of RWE’s annual press conference, which was scheduled for Tuesday March 8.

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