Leyland begins lay-offs as its sales slump

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 9

Leyland begins lay-offs as its sales slump

NZPA-Reuter London! \ ,1' The State-owned British! I Leyland motor corporation !! iwill begin laying off thou-! 1 sands of workers this weekly in an attempt to reduce its|< huge stockpile of unsold!; cars. • The company, beset for!' years by strikes, took only! 15 per "cent of the British t market last month leaving i thousands of unsold cars in < factories and showrooms. To clear them, B.L. has 1 launched a “Buy British, buy t Leyland” television and t newspaper advertising cam- t paign and is offering price reductions. \

! During this campaign the l ! ! company will be cutting! 'back production by tempo- ■; irarily discharging some ofi! its 117,000 work-force. !| ‘ From today nearly 13,000 1 workers will be laid off at ! car and component plants around Britain and about 6000 will be given reduced ; working hours. r The aim is to cut production of Marina, Maxi, Dolo- I mite, Princess, and Roverlf cars. jl The phased programme of it lay-offs will reach 14,500 ini the first week of next? month, with 6900 on short it time. 11 Then the total number of < workers affected drops tol[

‘9OOO by the end of March. Ai ! British Leyland spokesman ■said: “If, in the very unlike-1 lly event that demand for a; ! particular car does not pick i up. then clearly it could! mean a further period ofi; lay-offs. “But we are not thinking:, along these lines at the mo-j ment.” L British Leyland, rescued : from collapse in 1975 by the ’ former Labour Government, 1 has been constantly plagued by strikes. i ’ Last year the work-force i voted ’overwhelmingly to < accept a proposed loss ofii 25,000 jobs as part of a|i company plan for long-term : profitability. ■ I: