Goodyear Dunlop restores full shifts

GOODYEAR Dunlop Tyres UK has reinstated the ‘Guaranteed Working Week’ for workers at its plant in Bushbury, Wolverhampton.

The tyre company has told unions that all full-time employees will be guaranteed a full 42-hour week with immediate effect. Around 300 people work at the plant.

In December 2008, during the early stages of the economic downturn which resulted in severely reduced demand for car and truck tyres, the removal of the Guaranteed Working Week was announced by the company. This meant that employees had to work reduced hours as shift patterns were changed. Workers at the the Dunlop Motorsport factory in Birmingham were unaffected.

Ian Taylor, Production Director said: “This approach allowed us to balance our inventories in line with demand while at the same time minimizing disruption to the work schedule for our associates. Our teams did a superb job in managing shift staffing in a way that ensured that lay-offs were kept to the lowest possible level.”

The company manufactures rubber compound and retreaded truck tyres at the Bushbury Lane site which employs over 300 people.  In 2009, the company invested in new technology which was used in the launch of the Goodyear TreadMax truck tyre range, which is now used by leading fleets across Europe.

Mr Taylor said: “The commitment of our team has been outstanding, implementing new working practices and adapting to reduced working hours.  We appreciate that 2009 was a difficult year for our team at Wolverhampton. However, we exit the recession with a similar sized workforce to the beginning of the downturn, and this was due to the flexibility and proactive attitude of our team. We are confident that our innovative new tyres that help fleets improve vehicle efficiency will help grow demand for our Wolverhampton manufactured range.”