Toyota cuts working hours
STAFF at Toyota’s Deeside factory will have their pay and working hours cut by 10% as the company seeks to “maintain employment”.
The measures, which will also affect the group’s plant in Derbyshire, will be introduced in a bid to cut costs as sales slump across Europe.
Toyota employs around 600 staff at the engine plant at Deeside Industrial Park near Flint. The cost-cutting scheme will start from April 1 and last for one year.
A year ago the company unveiled an investment package worth £88m at the factory but the plan was axed in December when the recession started to bite.
Production of the new Auris NR 4-cylinder 1.3-litre petrol engine was scheduled to begin in late 2009 at Deeside.
The Deeside engine plant produces fully-assembled petrol engines for Toyota’s vehicle manufacturing plant at Burnaston, Derbyshire where 3,900 people work.
The Welsh factory also undertakes casting and machining of engine sets for export to Toyota plants in countries across the world – including Venezuela, Brazil, Turkey, France, South Africa and Japan – for local assembly. Production at Deeside began in September 1992.
More than 3,000 redundancies have been announced in recent months in the auto sector.
