Workers at Airbus sites in Broughton and Filton have been furloughed as the aerospace firm takes action following the news that plane production is being cut by a third as the coronavirus pandemic impacts the aviation sector.
Business Live yesterday reported that Airbus was cutting the the monthly production rate of the A320 from 60 to 40 while also reducing A350 rates to 6.
Now the company has released a statement - spelling out the initial impact on Broughton in North Wales and Filton, near Bristol.
This includes 500 workers being laid off or going into furlough - with the UK Government paying 80% of their wages under the Job Retention Scheme. The workers are largely employed by contractor Guidant at the two plants.
Airbus lays out the initial impact of the global production reduction on Broughton.
How will the cut in production announced by Airbus affect Broughton?
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Adjustments of activities will be necessary in Broughton (and Filton). We had already adapted our production activity by bringing forward the summer shutdown and extending the Easter break for production staff across both sites. Production teams are currently on an extended Easter break. This was initially until 14 April and has just been extended until 20 April. This is a consequence of the immediate short-term demand of our Final Assembly Line (FAL) customers in France, Germany and Spain over the next 2-3 weeks and the assessment of our buffer stock.
Have employees been furloughed or laid off?
- Unfortunately, it has been necessary to review and reduce our temporary Production and Production-support labour. This impacts about 500 Broughton and Filton staff largely employed by Guidant, our temporary labour provider.
Will the employees get their “normal” pay for the weeks they are off?
- Employees involved in production received normal holiday-pay arrangements for the first two weeks. As agreed with the Trade Union, we will use existing time-management systems, like time-saving accounts, to provide employees with a number of options in terms of covering holidays for the additional week holiday.
