NEARLY 600 workers at Toyota’s engine plant, in Deeside, are to go on to what will effectively be a nine-day fortnight from next month as the company scales back production by 10%.
The company said it is cutting hours and pay for all its staff by 10% from April 1 as a result of the recession and falling car sales.
Union sources said workers had a basic pay of around £19,000 and would lose £1,900. Toyota could not confirm the amount of money workers will lose, but said the cuts affected all employees, including managers. Toyota has already cut 200 temporary jobs in the UK and opened a voluntary redundancy scheme last week.
It has also scrapped the annual pay increase and cancelled management bonuses, while its UK factories – including the Deeside site – have just finished a week’s shut-down. The new cuts tomorrow are in addition to those measures.
Toyota had made clear that it was looking to cut costs by around 10% in order to achieve its over-riding aim of protecting permanent jobs.
The Deeside engine plant employs 570 people and the Burnaston car assembly plant in Derbyshire, which makes the Avensis and Auris models, has around 3,900 staff. Eighty-five per cent of the company’s output is exported, but the firm’s European sales were down by 10% last year.
