Serco to cut 170 jobs

IT services company Serco is cutting around 170 jobs as part of a company-wide restructuring plan.

The job cuts come despite Serco boosting revenues by 38 per cent to £2.26bn and profits by 22 per cent to £77.9m for the financial year ended 31 December 2005.

Serco provides a wide range of services to the public sector. It bought local authority IT provider ITNet for £235m in 2005.

A source close to the situation told silicon.com that some of the affected staff were notified last week and have already left the company.

A spokesman for Serco confirmed the job cuts but said the company will not know the final redundancy figure until the end of the 30-day consultation period.

He said: "We have started a consultation process with staff. We are looking to restructure the business to meet the needs of our customers even better. Our highest priority is to treat the people affected in a fair and sensitive way."