Toyota Manufacturing UK (TMUK) said on Thursday its decision to axe 750 jobs at its plant in Derby would not involve compulsory redundancies.
TMUK plans to move to single line production at its plant in Derby from August this year. The factory builds the Auris (the European version of the Corolla), the larger Avensis and plans to add an Auris hybrid soon.
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“We have been running with excess headcount all through 2009,” a TMUK spokeswoman told just-auto from the plant. “We explained to our employees what the company situation is, that we will have people surplus by August.”
Derby output has dropped from 288,000 in 2007 to just 127,000 units last year.
“That is a significant drop and we don’t produce cars on a Friday [for example], which is a non-production day,” added the spokeswoman. “We are running at quite a low efficiency – there is that slack in there which means we have more people than we need.”
She insisted however, that forecast volume may improve slightly.
TMUK worker representatives were briefed on Monday (25 January), while all employees were told of developments Wednesday with an action plan to tackle the excess headcount due to be tabled around mid-March.
A TMUK statement noted 2009 had been “a tough year,” and that the jobs decision was “related to production capacity and efficiency, not to production volumes.”
Nissan, meanwhile announced today it would reinstate from next May – for six months – a night shift at its Sunderland plant in northeast England to cope with expected high demand for updated versions of its Qashqai crossover due on sale in March.
