Michelin Dundee Plans Praised

Proposed initiatives to tackle the effects of the economic situation have been well received by union representatives. On January 16 the company announced that discussions with employees and the union Unite have led to a number of measures being put forward in an attempt to avoid redundancies at the company’s Baldovie factory in Dundee. Michelin has proposed temporary plant closures in which employees would be asked to take 56 hours off on full pay, with the proviso they work back the time in 2010, or else take the time off on two-thirds pay without the obligation to work it back.

“We’ve been working closely with management since mid-December on this contingency plan,” shop steward Dave Brady told the Dundee Evening Telegraph. “Right across Europe, right across the world, there are problems in the car and truck industry and it affects everybody. Jobs are disappearing and, while nobody likes moving time to next year, the company is showing it wants to protect the workforce as much as it can.”

Either way, management say they want to retain the current level of staff so that they would be in a position to take advantage of any upturn in demand. Plant personnel manager Ian Peart says it is now up the union and its members to discuss the proposed measures. “These are proposals that would be used in the event of any downturn in the situation and there are no job losses associated with it,” he said. “We are trying to retain skills in the business and protect jobs and earnings, but if the sales of tyres are not what we want them to be then we would propose to close the plant for nine production days, the equivalent of 56 hours each for our workforce.

“We don’t want anything to happen and we believe it’s a relatively small impact on people, where some terrible things are happening across the country,” he added. “We believe that demand will return and we want to be in a suitable position to respond to that, and that means keeping the workforce at the levels we have.”