Irving Oil is cutting 250 jobs from its operations in Canada, the United States, Ireland and the UK.
President Ian Whitcomb and Executive Vice-President Sarah Irving released a statement sharing the “difficult decision” to significantly reduce their workforce in light of the current economic challenges.
The workforce reduction amounts to six per cent of the company’s global workforce.
The statement said the challenges faced by the business and the industry are unlike any they’ve ever experienced.
It said the company is working hard to keep their business secure “through the extreme challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Whitcomb and Irving said this was the last decision they wanted to make and to everyone impacted, they are sorry.
During a scrum with reporters on Wednesday afternoon, Premier Blaine Higgs said the cuts are concerning and disappointing.
“In the energy field, we know that with the airlines essentially shut down that there’s a huge demand change and that demand change would reflect in a reduction in throughput capacity requirements in the refinery,” said Higgs.
“It’s my understanding the refinery will continue to run. Let’s hope this is an interim measure and that production is able to get back up and we see that the employees return to work.”
Higgs said the province will work with impacted workers through the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour.
In the statement, the company didn’t say how many how New Brunswick positions were cut but Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long said in a Facebook post it was 173.
“Today is an incredibly tough day for our riding and our province as a whole: 173 Irving Oil employees in our province, the vast majority of whom are based in Saint John, have been laid off due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he wrote.
“Earlier today, I spoke with senior officials at Irving regarding the causes of these job losses, and I will be working closely with my federal colleagues in the coming days and weeks to ensure our federal government does everything in its power to fuel the post-pandemic economic recovery required to ensure that those affected by today’s layoffs are able to find good, sustainable, well-paying jobs in our riding and our province as soon as possible.”
