Airbus Broughton workers to be balloted on a shorter working week in bid to save jobs

Airbus workers at Broughton are to be balloted on a plan to move to a shorter working week to save jobs.

Airbus opened talks with unions on reducing the Broughton workforce by 1,435 last summer after the planemaker said it was cutting 15,000 jobs globally due to the effects of the pandemic.

Nearly 1,000 jobs have gone through voluntary redundancies and around 450 production and production-support workers contracted to Airbus were made redundant last August.

A plan has now been negotiated between Unite and Airbus which will see a reduction in the working week of up to 10 per cent for a short period of time.

If agreed, the proposal will remove the possibility of compulsory redundancies and provide a roadmap to a resumption of full time working and a way out of this COVID-19 crisis.

Peter Hughes, Unite Wales Regional Secretary commented;

“Coronavirus has been devastating for the Aerospace sector and specifically for Airbus in the UK.“

“If agreed by the workforce at Broughton these proposals for a shorter working week will protect jobs and remove the possibility of compulsory redundancies.”

“We have already lost close to 1,000 high quality jobs at Broughton during the coronavirus crisis, we can’t afford to lose any more.”

“This plan to reduce hours will come with a reduction in pay for our members but crucially it offers a route out of the current crisis which will not involve any further job losses.”

“Unite and our senior reps on site believe this is the best option available and we will be strongly urging our members to accept the proposal”.

Daz Reynolds, Unite Convenor at Airbus commented:

“Airbus Broughton has been devastated by Covid19 and we have explored every avenue available to seek a viable future for this world class plant.”

“We believe that this proposal for a shorter working week is the only way in which we can avoid compulsory redundancies based on the current build plans for Broughton.”

“Under the shorter working week proposal, the reduction in hours, and therefore pay, will be mitigated by the companies agreement to cover a third of the shortfall. We will be balloting on the proposals in the coming days.”

“The senior Unite reps and shop stewards are unanimously proposing acceptance of the proposal as the only viable way of securing every highly skilled and quality job here at Broughton”.