F&I Management & Training

Carmaker Toyota says that staff at its UK factories will have their pay and working hours cut by 10%. The cuts will take effect on 1 April and will last for one year. They affect 4,500 staff at plants in Burnaston, Derby, and Deeside, Flintshire. Toyota said the measures would allow the company to "maintain employment in this difficult period". Car firms in the UK and elsewhere are cutting jobs and slashing production as the downturn hits car sales. Cutbacks The Unite union said that the cuts announced by Toyota would give their workers a measure of stability, although it said any decision to cut wages and working should not be taken lightly. "The agreement we have reached with Toyota will ensure none of our members' benefits are eroded and that these skilled workers will remain in place and at work ready for when the upturn comes," said Unite representative Peter Tsouvallaris. Carmakers have been forced to announce cost-cutting measures, including reducing production, freezing pay and stockpiling thousands of vehicles, in the face of a sales slump across Europe. More than 3,000 UK redundancies have been announced in recent months, with parts suppliers also hit hard. Redundancies? Toyota employs 3,900 workers at Burnaston, where the Avensis and Auris are made, and 570 at Deeside. Toyota has already suspended a night shift on its Auris production line and will shut production for a total of four weeks in 2009. It has already cut 200 temporary jobs and opened a voluntary redundancy scheme last week but has insisted big layoffs would not be necessary. "We have in no region in the world, in no manufacturing plant, made any large scale forced redundancies," Graham Smith, senior vice president, Toyota Motor Europe told BBC News in a recent interview, insisting that the company is fiercely protective of its skilled workforce. "That has tremendous value for a company like Toyota," he added. "We have to be ready when the upturn comes." Toyota has already said it will post the first group-wide annual operating loss - totalling more than £3bn - in its 70-year history. The company has scrapped annual pay increases and management bonuses.

DATED: 12.03.09

FEED: AW