The security company G4S plans to make more than 1,000 workers redundant as it scales back its struggling cash-handling business. G4S told workers on Monday that it had started a consultation process that could result in as many as 1,150 people losing their jobs in the UK and Ireland – more than a quarter of the 4,000-strong workforce in the cash solutions business. Workers affected by the cuts are likely to include drivers of armoured trucks who carry cash for businesses. G4S’s vast security services business, which has been at the centre of multiple scandals in recent years including alleged human rights abuses, has made it one of the world’s largest private sector employers, with 558,000 workers in 90 countries, including 25,000 in the UK. The cash-handling business has 4,500 customers in the UK and Ireland. The cash solutions business was G4S’s second-largest earner, with revenues of £1.1bn in 2019 before the sale of part of the operation to Brink’s in February. However, in March, shortly before the UK’s coronavirus lockdown, G4S reported a loss of £91m for 2019 after it wrote down the value of its cash-handling business by £291m. The unit has struggled amid a decline in cash transactions in the UK as people increasingly switch to card payments in stores and online. It is also understood that the decline in cash usage during the coronavirus outbreak has added further to the pressures on the company. Many shops have urged customers to avoid using cash where possible in order to reduce the number of touch points that could aid the spread of the virus. The GMB union said it would oppose job losses and added that the redundancies could hasten the end of cash. Roger Jenkins, a national officer at the GMB, said: “These cuts are devastating for our members and their families. GMB will fight to the end for every single job. “They are also another worrying step towards a cashless society – the cash industry really is on a knife edge.” On Friday, G4S was fined £44m by the Serious Fraud Office for overcharging the Ministry of Justice for the electronic tagging of offenders, some of whom had died. G4S’s share price rose by 11% on Monday to 132p, its highest since the March writedown, after it said it expected above-consensus profits for the first half of the year. Paul van der Knaap, the managing director of G4S Cash Solutions UK, said the firm would try to find new jobs within the company for affected workers. “Following a review of our cash solutions operational footprint in the UK, we are proposing to reshape the business to better align it with the changing needs of our customers,” he said. “Regrettably, this will result in a reduction in headcount and today we have entered into a period of consultation with affected staff.”