E.ON to cut 400 jobs
September 24, 2008 at 1:38 am
The German-based energy giants E.ON are not having a good year, but then which energy company is? 2008 has seen E.ON forced into a corner, along with most of their main competitors, and this summer saw them increase their residential customers’ annual fuel bills by up to 26% a year. Now it seems it’s not just the customers but also the staff who are feeling the heat.
September saw the announcement that E.ON, who made over 5 billion pounds profit in 2007, will be cutting up to 400 jobs from their British energy services’ business, which currently helps provide power for street lights as well as gas and electricity in a great number of homes across the UK.
E.ON have called for members of its 4,400 UK staff to put themselves forward for generous redundancy packages and said they will be offering counselling and general support for those affected by the job losses.
E.ON haven’t blamed any one factor for the decision to cut jobs, but have admitted to suffering quite badly from the slump in the UK property market. They currently provide a huge service in fitting new boilers, providing meter readings and improving customers’ fuel use. The credit crunch has meant that all belts have had to be tightened and, sadly for E.ON’s staff, this means they have suffered from the company’s loss in revenue this year.
Chief Executive of E.ON in the UK, Paul Golby, said in reaction to the announcement that, “This was not an easy decision for us to take, but this is the first step as we take a long hard look at our costs”.
E.On are the latest to bump up prices
September 3, 2008 at 2:15 pm
For many of us in the UK it must feel like a game of Russian Roulette when it comes to guessing which of our energy companies are planning to be the next to increase their fuel prices. Every time we switch on the news, another one of the big companies announces that they are next to make our bills higher. News comes this month that customers of the German company, E.On, are the next to bump up their gas prices.
The announcement came this week that E.On are to raise their residential gas prices by a whopping 26% and also raise their power prices by 16%. Due to energy prices soaring across the world and the price of a barrel of oil on the increase almost daily (reaching over $100 this year), E.On might have got away without having to explain this increase. However, they have stated that the rise is due to the wholesale energy prices becoming much higher.
The managing director Graham Bartlett has expressed his deepest sympathies with his customers but has pretty much claimed that the action was out of his hands. The average annual bill now paid in monthly direct debit to E.On has risen from £967 to £1,194. It comes at the same time as Scottish and Southern Energy’s rise too and many others before it, but sadly for E.On customers this is the second time this year they have faced a price rise. It seems there’s nowhere any of us can hide though with this issue.
