Australian military 'to recruit UK soldiers facing redundancy'

Home

Britain News.Net
Wednesday 28th December, 2011 (ANI)

Australia is planning to recruit up to 1,000 British soldiers facing redundancy as part of defence cuts.

According to The Telegraph, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has sent a delegation to Britain to investigate the plan, which would look to recruit some of the 5,000 Royal Navy staff due to lose their jobs over the next four years.

The Australian navy would directly contact redundant sailors and offer them "career transition options," the report said.

Australia's Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, promised his British counterpart, First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, that Australia would not recruit personnel needed by the British.

But Royal Navy officers have told the Australians they were "very comfortable" with the plan, the paper said.

"The plan is that the British navy would be contacting people being made redundant and telling them that there is an option for them to extend their career and giving them our contact details," the paper quoted an Australian military spokesman, as saying.

"The navy is happy for us to put out their feelers for our personnel," the spokesman added.

British Royal Navy has already announced plans to cut about 1,020 sailors, a third of whom are being made redundant compulsorily.

But the Australian navy has struggled to fill positions in recent years, particularly skilled maintenance workers who have been lured by lucrative positions in the booming mining industry. (ANI)

?

Source: http://www.britainnews.net/story/202192531

james harrison james harrison lil kim martial law mike wallace mike wallace pope joan