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Honda is to close its UK base for four months after Friday's shifts are over. This will affect just over 2,500 of its 3,700 employees, who will receive their full basic pay for the first two months, but around 60% thereafter. The shutdown at its Swindon base is thought to be one of the longest in Britain's recent industrial history. The move is in response to the downturn in the UK car market. On Friday the Japanese car company said global third quarter net profit had dropped 89%. Production staff, who install and upgrade machinery rather than make cars, will continue to work at Swindon during the shutdown. The last shift will end at 1820 tonight. Safeguarding jobs Honda has said there are no plans for redundancies and that it intends to "safeguard employment" for workers who want to stay at the company. Dave Hodgetts, senior director at the South Marston plant, said the company was not giving any guarantees but was "giving [its] best intentions". "We will be trying to protect their jobs - that's our priority for the whole period," he said. "After the four-month break, the plan is for all the staff to come back and their jobs will be secure," he added. Mr Hodgetts added the company would be ordering parts for next month, an indication of its commitment to start production in June. When staff return on 1 June, they will be making fewer vehicles as production, which was at around 240,000 vehicles a year, will resume at half that level. Among those vehicles will be the Honda Jazz, a small vehicle priced at between £10,000 and £12,000 which Honda says is proving popular with cash-strapped consumers. Honda, which employs 3,700 people in the UK and exports the Civic to 60 countries worldwide, has also cut 3,100 temporary jobs in Japan and reduced global production by 56,000 vehicles. 'Not utopia' Staff will be paid during the closure, but when the plant reopens, employees will have to work unpaid overtime equal to the amount they have been paid for over the four-month period, a spokesman for Honda said. Jim D'Avila, Unite the Union's officer for the South West, added that while it was good that workers were still being paid, if things got dramatically worse "companies like Honda will not be able to pay wages". "[The closure] has been a long time coming...but we have been trying to minimise the financial hardship and protect as many jobs as we can." Many workers will be cutting back, he said. "It's not utopia here...some will have to make financial adjustments to their budget. Some will get rid of cars, others will take a second mobile phone back or will take holidays in the UK instead of abroad." But some workers might be better off, he said. "[Some] will go off and get casual jobs and in some instances their income will be greater than if they had worked the four months." It is understood that more than 1,000 staff have signed up for a voluntary severance package and some have already left the business. Profits plunge Also on Friday, Honda said that its net profit for the three months to December plummeted 89%. The company made a net profit of 20.24bn yen ($226m; £158m), far lower than the 200bn yen it made in the same period the year before, prompting the company to cut its annual forecast by more than 50%. The group now expects net profit for the year to March 2009 to be 80bn yen, less than half its earlier forecast of 185bn yen. Bentley, Vauxhall and Jaguar Land Rover have all stopped production or cut the working week as demand for their cars fall.

DATED: 30.01.09

FEED: AW