Ford details temporary lay-offs

The jobs are expected to go in December

Ford has given details of how 800 of its staff facing temporary lay-offs over the Christmas and New Year period will be affected.

It comes as the firm plans to reduce shifts on its production lines at the plant in Bridgend and has blamed a downturn in the economic climate.

Of those affected, 200 will carry out maintenance and training duties and 600 will stay at home getting basic pay.

The lay-offs came on the same day as a �70m plant investment was announced.

The firm said the investment would be used to produce a new generation of low CO2 petrol engines.

The shutdown from 8 December to 5 January will affect production lines for Land Rover, Jaguar and Volvo.

In that period there will be no engine production for those vehicles, said the company.

Ford has invested more than �300m at the 28-year-old plant over the last five years and the latest investment had been welcomed by First Minister Rhodri Morgan, who said it would secure the plant's future.

But speaking during an interview on the announcement, Carwyn Jones, the AM for Bridgend, said: "It appears there will be some temporary lay-offs in December and a reduction in shift working which is something I very much regret and something the workers here will as well.

"That's very unfortunate, something to be expected I suppose in the current economic climate.

"But we must remember that the investment that's been put into the plant has been put there to secure its future for the medium term, even though it appears there will be bumpy times in the short term."

This is a direct consequence of the global instability that we are all experiencing on a daily basis Letter from Ford

In a letter sent to workers, Ford said: "The plant has seen a significant reduction in the volume of Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo engines it was previously scheduled to build.

"This is a direct consequence of the global instability that we are all experiencing on a daily basis.

"At a special meeting, the company has confirmed that the reduced Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo volumes would lead to temporary layoffs during the month of December."

It continued by saying that projected volumes for 2009 were "insufficient to sustain the shift patterns currently being worked in several activities."

It then detailed the planned changes in shifts and said the start of staff lay-offs would begin on 1 December.

It suggests that the staff would return to work after a month although "indirect employees" used to support the affected areas would be laid off.

Grant aid

The plant is Wales' third largest manufacturing plant, behind Airbus at Broughton and Corus at Port Talbot.

It currently employs 2,000 and it was hoped there would be an increase in staff following the latest investment.

The latest investment includes �13.4m from the Welsh Assembly Government and Mr Morgan said they had turned around the grant application by Ford in two months to secure the expansion.

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