Workers at two UK plants have been asked to volunteer for a redundancy programme which was announced last month and is due to start in the summer, even though the final redundancy packages have yet to be agreed. Toyota say that the job cuts are not related to recent global vehicle recalls and are instead part of an ongoing efficiency drive. In addition, the one week-shutdown at the assembly plant in Burnaston over the Easter break has been extended to two weeks and there is a chance that short-time working could also be in the pipeline. Once these job losses take effect, Toyota will have reduced its UK workforce by 1000 jobs – 20% – in 18 months.
Source: telegraph.co.uk/19.02.2010