Nissan staff choose the exit

Posted on 30 Apr 2009 by The Manufacturer

Nissan has announced that it has managed to secure all 1,200 redundancies at its Sunderland plant on a voluntary basis.

This expels the need for compulsory lay-offs, the firm assured.

Nissan first announced it would be making the 1,200 North East employees redundant in January in what it calls a “rightsizing programme”.

“I believe we have managed the situation in the best way possible by placing a priority on minimising the impact rightsizing has had on our employees and their families,” said Trevor Mann, Nissan’s senior vice president for manufacturing in Europe.

But the company is not yet out of the woods while low demand in the face of the world economic crisis persists and Mann said the automotive firm “remains ready to take further action if needed to protect the company.”

Last week Nissan announced it is extending government’s scrappage scheme – £2,000 discount on a new car when one over ten years old is retired – to cars between eight and ten years old if a car built in its Sunderland plant is the new one purchased.