 A decision on more job cuts is expected later this week |
Pitmen at a West Yorkshire mine are being warned there could be more job losses after geological problems thwarted an output expansion plan. More than 150 miners were taken on at Kellingley Colliery, near Pontefract, when UK Coal announced it was increasing output to 2m tonnes a year.
In December, UK Coal announced the loss of 60 jobs. The colliery employs 550.
A decision on whether more jobs will be axed is to be made after an assessment of one of the pit's coal faces.
Finalising assessment
Stuart Oliver, spokesman for UK Coal, said: "We have got problems on two faces. On one face we have had to reduce the man power by 60.
"We are now finalising our assessment of the second face which may lead to more job cuts."
The geological problems came to light when a fracture was discovered in one of the coal seams.
Mr Oliver said: "We are only days away from concluding our deliberations on the assessment of the second face and then a decision on if, when and why there will be job loses will be made."
Chris Kitchen, representative for the National Union of Mineworkers, said: "The redundancies do not come as much of a surprise.
"We were told they are offering voluntary redundancies, but may have to make them compulsory."
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