Ford Australia Cuts 212 Jobs
Back in July, we reported that Ford Australia would cut 440 workers from their Broadmeadows plant and slow daily production from 209 to 148 vehicles.
Today, 118 voluntary redundancies and various in-house transfers have resulted in 212 workers losing their jobs.
According to The Australian, 110 job cuts were spared when Ford was able to place some workers in product development and taking Ford Performance Vehicles in-house beginning in 2013.
Still, the efforts were not enough.
“Unfortunately, as we didn't achieve the required number of redundancies voluntarily, the company is moving ahead with a compulsory redundancy program,” said Ford Australia spokeswoman Sinead Phipps in a company statement.
“Despite our best efforts, it will be a very difficult day for the entire Ford team.”
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The result was expected by Australian Manufacturing Workers Unionacting national secretary Dave Smith, who predicted back in July that Ford would not receive enough voluntary redundancies to avoid layoffs later.
"It's highly unlikely they will get enough volunteers for redundancies. It doesn't matter how much people get in their package, it's never going to be adequate compensation for losing their jobs,” he said.
According to reports, most employees are not harbouring animosity towards the company.
Ford isn’t facing greener pastures across the pond: last week, the company announced the shutdown of three assembly lines in the UK and Europe, resulting in 8000 jobs being cut.
