Honda Motor Company is to close its Swindon base for four months, which will affect 2,500 of the 3,700 strong staff. The closures are due to take affect after today’s shifts are over, with the staff affected receiving full basic pay for two months and around 60% pay for the following two.
The latest closure is in response to the growing downturn affecting the UK car market, and last Friday Honda stated that its Q3 net profit was down 89%. Earlier this week the government outlined a new bailout plan for the stricken UK car industry with a £2.3bn package.
Honda has reiterated that it does not plan to make any redundancies; rather it intends to ‘safeguard employment’ for those workers who want to keep working for the company. It is thought that over a thousand staff have already signed for voluntary severance, with some already leaving the company.
Dave Hodgetts, senior director at the Swindon plant said: “We will be trying to protect their jobs – that’s our priority for the whole period”.
2 Responses
Simon, i have to agree with you, i think Honda are dealing with this well and very fairly. I wonder if others such as Vauxhall will follow them.
Posted on February 3rd, 2009 at 2:19 am
I see Nissan have just cut loads of job over here, after predicting a loss for their first qauter.
Posted on February 10th, 2009 at 3:19 am
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