JOBS at the Selby pit complex were today put under threat with the announcement that hundreds of RJB mineworkers will lose their jobs around the country.

RJB officials met with mining unions this week and warned that 400 jobs would be axed in the next six months across the company's 13 collieries.

That amounts to seven per cent of the firm's total workforce of 8,000.

It is not yet known how many will go at the Selby complex, although numbers are expected to be "significant".

RJB spokesman Stuart Oliver said the jobs would go across the full range of disciplines.

"They will be spread over a six month period and will take effect as and when particular tasks become defunct or with rationalisation of duties and responsibilities," he said.

The losses are to be divided evenly between the company's pits in the Midlands and Yorkshire, and, although severe, are not as bad as the doom and gloom forecast last year when the company failed to ensure new contracts. Industry observers then feared that between five and eight collieries employing as many as 5,000 men could face closure.

RJB has landed a number of lucrative new deals in the last six months, but these do not make up for the large contracts inherited from British Coal that have since expired, and a drop of 20 per cent in the price of a tonne of coal. Selby pits have also suffered from poor geological conditions.

Recent deals secured have included a £1.4 billion contract with Eastern Group and a £1 billion order from PowerGen in December, and an £800 million deal with National Power last month.

But RJB's mounting losses have forced coal baron Richard Budge's hand, and he warned Selby miners two weeks ago at an emergency meeting that urgent cost-cutting measures were needed to get the area's five pits out of the red.

NUM branch secretary at Wistow mine, Ken Rowley, said the losses had not yet been formally announced to Selby pitmen, but said the mood around the mine was "depressed".

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