Factory days cut
The number of working days at NSK’s Newark factory is to be slashed in April, May and June in a bid to prevent further job losses.
NSK Bearing Europe Ltd in December said 87 of its 308-strong staff at Newark were to be made redundant by the end of March.
It has now confirmed a cut in the number of days the remaining staff will work over three months.
The factory on Northern Road will open for 16 days in April, ten in May and 12 in June. The reduction of working days will not affect managerial staff.
NSK is reducing production of bearings because of a fall in demand from the machine tools and spares industry.
A spokesman said: “The company is trying very hard to make sure there aren’t any more redundancies.
“The global manufacturing industry is in decline and that has impacted on operations like NSK.
“We have to reduce production volume and the only way to do that is to have non-working days where people are taking their holiday entitlement or, effectively, have a short-term lay off.
“The management is trying to protect the jobs. This isn’t about protecting profits.”
He said if staff had annual leave owing they would be encouraged to take it on days the factory would be closed so they would be paid.
Staff unable to take leave will not be paid while they are not working.
In another blow to the local economy Caledonian Building Systems of Carlton-on-Trent has shed 30 jobs and introduced a three-day week to avoid further redundancies.
The company makes prefabricated steel-framed buildings for hotels, prisons, the military and residential developers.
The managing director, Mr Dave Turnbull, said, like all companies in the construction sector, Caledonian had been hit by the recession.
He said before a significant slump in new orders the company achieved a record £120m turnover in 2007-8.
A £63m takeover by US industry giant Champion Enter- prises Inc. in 2006 had made Caledonian a major force in the UK construction industry.
Caledonian still employs 250 people.
“We held out for as long as we could after the slump began but we have taken a big hit over the past six months,” said Mr Turnbull.
“The short working week is far more preferable than more redundancies.
“We have a number of potential projects coming through which could lead to an upturn but that is totally dependent on client orders.
“It isn’t that our clients don’t want to spend the money with us, they can’t raise the funds. There are a number of sites where planning permission has already been granted.”
Vodafone announced on Tuesday it would be cutting 500 jobs across the UK.
Its business solutions division on Brunel Drive, Newark, is one of Newark’s biggest employers with a staff of more than 450.
A spokesman for Vodafone could not confirm how many jobs may be at risk in Newark.
The spokesman said 170 jobs would go at the company’s headquarters in Newbury.
The MP for Newark, Mr Patrick Mercer, said Newark’s economy was vulnerable to the economic downturn.
“I’m afraid we always predicted that this would be the case and that’s why issues like the Staythorpe issue are so irritating when every job in the Newark area is needed to compensate for redundancies,” he said.