TROUBLED York employer CPP has asked staff to consider voluntary redundancy as it pares back its operating costs.

The business held a briefing with staff this morning to tell them it needed to reduce its staffing by about ten per cent.

If staff do not volunteer for redundancy in the process, which is expected to be completed by the end of March, other avenues, such as compulsory redundancies, will have to be looked at.

CPP, which employs about 1,000 people in York, said the move was part of a review of the business’s operations which has been taking place at the same time as the investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Voluntary redundancy will be offered to administrative and managerial staff across the business, although customer-facing roles will be protected, it said.

A statement from the company said: “As part of its efforts to move towards a more customer-focused business structure, and following the agreement in principle with the FSA, CPP has today announced a voluntary redundancy programme in its UK business. CPP is committed to keeping job losses at a minimum and the programme is expected to affect less that 10 per cent of its UK workforce. These actions do not impact CPP’s ability to deliver high standards of service for its customers and no customer-facing roles are affected.”