Retrenched an hour before end of shift

A leading UK trade union boss has written to the chairman of BMW's board of management to protest in the strongest possible terms at the organisation's 'outrage' at the manner in which 330 agency workers at the manufacturer's Oxford plant were summarily sacked earlier this week - and warned the German car company that there will be no further repeats of last Monday's disgraceful sackings.

BMW is seeking to sack a total of 850 agency workers in total at its Cowley plant, 330 of whom were dismissed one hour before their shift finished on Monday of this week. The balance, 520 workers, face the sack when they return to work this coming Monday.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of the UK's biggest union, Unite, has warned BMW that Unite will not accept any further dismissals.

Instead, Mr Woodley says that the company must sit down with the union as a matter of urgency to discuss saving jobs at the plant.

Unite is also accusing BMW of abusing the agreement on agency labour at Cowley, taking advantage of the workers' lack of rights to exploit working men and women, throwing them to the dole without further expense to or effort by the company.

In his letter to Dr Norber Reithofer, chairman of the BMW management board, Mr Woodley said: "You have treated your workforce with utter contempt. The difficulties of the car industry globally are well known, but the manner in which BMW has sought to address the reduction of its volumes at the Cowley plant in the UK is nothing short of disgraceful. You would not treat a dog this way, never mind loyal and committed employees.

"The dismissal of the weekend shift, with many workers who have worked at Cowley for up to five years, with only one hour's notice, has to rank as the most outrageous form of dismissal that we have experienced in the car industry in the UK.

Source: Newspress.co.uk

Credits: Jarvis