JCB goes back full-time but redundancy worries grow
HUNDREDS of JCB workers who sacrificed pay to save jobs have returned to full-time working – amid fears of more redundancies.
JCB Heavy Products, just off the A50 in Beamhurst, Uttoxeter, remained on a shorter working week after staff at sister factories resumed full-time working in May.
But before the summer shutdown the 350 employees at the site voted to join their co-workers at other plants in returning to a 39-hour week by a 71 per cent majority.
They restarted their normal working pattern on Monday.
Union leaders praised workers for voting for a cut in hours to save jobs.
But they expressed concerns that the return to full-time working could put further jobs at risk.
A JCB spokesman dismissed claims of further redundancies as 'pure speculation' and said there were no impending further job losses.
GMB shop steward Gordon Richardson said: "There has been no confirmation of any further impending redundancies and we are hoping there won't be any more, but we haven't been given a 100 per cent guarantee.
"We are very proud of the work our members have done at Heavy Products, especially as they have been on 34 hours for such a long time.
"We appreciate their sacrifice and understand the reasoning for going back to full-time working."
A Heavy Products worker, who asked not to be named, said: "We took a vote just before the shutdown to either stay on a 34-hour week and have no redundancies or go on 39 hours but maybe lose another 50 men.
"Unfortunately 71 per cent of my colleagues voted to go back onto 39 hours and lose more men, just for an extra £30 a week. I personally wanted to stay on 34 hours and lose no men.
"The fact that management and office workers haven't taken the same cuts is an extra kick in the teeth."
JCB has axed around 1,600 jobs in the past 12 months after the credit crunch took its toll on the construction industry. It now employs around 4,000 people in Staffordshire.
Community leaders have welcomed the return to full-time working.
Cheadle Mayor Julie Bull, whose son Bryan was laid off by JCB in October, said: "I know a lot of workers who have been on a four-day week have really been feeling the pinch. I hope it is a good sign and an indication that things are picking up."
Comments
by the majority, staffordshire
Tuesday, August 25 2009, 6:23PM
“firstly mr hp worker,we took the vote to prove a point,and that is that the MAJORITY of the workforce had done enough for the company and were fed up to the back teeth of being pushed around and treated like complete idiots.it is us that have put the diggers through the door,us that have sacrificed 5 hrs a week ,which for your information is 250 a mnth,or 65 pound a week,and not er 30,and as we stand now,our md who must not be named has not come out and given the workers the respect they deserve for the sacrifice that they have given and told them sweet nothings.of what is happening in regards to jobs,even though we were categorically told prior to the vote that 50,jcb spokesman,that is 50 jobs were to go if a return to 39 hrs was voted in,and this was not pure speculation may i hasten to add,so if u would like to get your speculative information from md of hp,then im sure he would be more than grateful to fill you in,(soz for the pun),not even have they came out and thanked us for our sacrifice over the last 10mnths,which in every ones eyes is a complete and utter disgrace,and a slap in the face to the shopfloor workers.it is a good job we work near farms because the stench of a herd of bulls depositng a load of dung is rife ,could so easily be mistaken for the rubbish being dished out by hierachy and jcb spokesmen alike.we are still waiting md,give us the respect we deserve and tell us if/when youre planned redundacies are taking place.time to be a man about it”