Shop floor anger as firm lays off workers
A QUARTER of Marshall Tufflex's shop floor workforce will reportedly be laid off by Monday as part of a restructuring plan.
The St Leonards-based international company is believed to be terminating the contracts of several employees in the Extrusion and Moulding sectors of the firm.
Staff fear the lay-offs could number as many as 26, with 25 coming from the company's shop floor sites at Castleham and Churchfields Industrial Estates.
Marshall Tufflex (pictured below) is one of the town's most prominent industrial employers, and an international manufacturer and supplier of cable management, guttering and window systems.
The Observer was contacted by a company employee, who said all Extrusion and Moulding staff received a memo dated September 23 from manufacturing operations manager Paul Mitchell announcing the cuts.
It states the redundancy plan was being initiated as part of a move from the current four-on four-off shift system to a three-shift pattern.
It said: "When we moved to the four-on four-off system a few years ago it was envisaged the additional capacity would be filled. However, this has not happened and we now need to amend our operation accordingly to reflect the trading environment."
The employee claims it has been suggested qualified staff operating machinery would be supported by temporary staff packing and completing basic tasks.
He said affected employees were given the option of leaving immediately by choice, or facing termination on Monday.
The move has come as a blow to employees at the firm, which employs 300 office staff and fewer than 100 on the shop floor.
One laid-off worker, who has asked to remain anonymous, said: "It has caused a lot of upset at the company. There has been a lot of disappointment and it's causing a lot of problems. A lot of people who were told they were being made redundant went back to their stations and sabotaged the machinery.
"We have not been told it's anything to do with finances. It's simply restructuring. They are making people redundant so they can go in a different direction to make more profit. It has been a rumour for quite some time and they said it was not going to happen. It's not a rumour now."
A statement from Marshall Tufflex said: "As with most UK manufacturing companies, competition is fierce in all our markets. Over the last few years we have invested in automation and other productivity improvements to enable us to remain competitive and drive our business forward.
"As part of the ongoing process of ensuring the long-term development of our business, we have reviewed our future capacity requirement and we have concluded this needs to be reduced in some areas of our business.
"Over the past weeks we have been consulting with the teams affected to minimise the effect of this decision on our workforce.
"In addition we have provided a support service for the employees affected."
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