Whyalla based steelworks OneSteel said that it is hoping it will not have to force redundancies on its workers because of the global financial crisis and has called for expressions of interest from employees to take voluntary redundancies.

It said that the economic crisis has meant the company will likely record a net operating loss for the second half of this financial year.

Mr Mark Parry CEO of OneSteel said that the voluntary redundancies are likely to be taken by people who were already considering leaving the steelworks in the near future.

He added that "We are not talking about numbers, we are talking about getting our cost base to where we need it to be, and I think that will be determined by the number of people who come forward. Based on the different categories, we will look at what we're able to do as we get that list."

The Australian Workers Union said that it has been given a guarantee by OneSteel that workers who take a voluntary redundancy will not be replaced once the global financial crisis is over.

Mr Rod Skuse from the AWU said that he has not been approached by union members worried about their jobs. He added that "The company's given guarantees to the Australian Workers Union that these are legitimate redundancies, that these jobs won't be replaced by other people or contractors in the near future or when things are expected to recover."

(Sourced from www.abc.net.au)