Cuts plan 'death knell' for firm

Moving 250 Waterford Wedgwood jobs from Stoke-on-Trent to Indonesia would sound the "death knell" for the pottery company, a union has warned.

The firm said fine bone china production at its Barlaston site was being reviewed and it was considering moving the work to its site in Jakarta.

It said it needed to cut costs to bring the company back into profit.

Geoff Bagnall, general secretary of the union Unity, said previous job moves to Indonesia had not helped the firm.

Waterford Wedgwood has said it would try to minimise job losses.

The firm, which also makes fine bone china at its factory in Jakarta, said "timely and decisive action" was required to return the group to profitability.

The changes would begin in November if the proposals are approved.

'Worse situation'

However, Mr Bagnall said in his view moving more jobs to the south-east Asia would spell the end of the firm.

He said when Waterford Wedgwood initially transferred work to Indonesia it said this would "safeguard the company".

He said: "But they have done all that for many years and it's been moved to Indonesia and where are we?

"We are in a worse situation than we have ever been."

Waterford Wedgwood has begun a formal consultation process with employees potentially affected by the plan and said it would remain in close contact with the unions.

It said it would actively encourage a voluntary redundancy programme to "mitigate potential compulsory redundancy situations".

Mr Bagnall said a lot of its members had been expecting the review "for a long period of time" and there had been a lot of uncertainty.

He added the union would be working to try to reduce compulsory redundancies if the proposals went ahead and to make sure those who did leave would be given help.

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