January 2009 Car News - GBCarLoans.com

16th January 2009

Production stops for four months at Honda UK

Honda's production plant in Swindon is to halt it's production during the months of April and May the company had alreay announced it would be shut during February and March. Honda say they are having to do this as a consequence of collapsing global sales. There are no plans as yet for redundancy and the firm intend they said to "safeguard employment" for those workers who wanted to stay.
Emplyees will still receive about 80% of their pay during that time, but it has been stipulated that workers will have to make the time back once the plant re-opens. At present Honda employs 4,200 in the UK, only last week Honda stated that 3,100 temporary jobs in Japan would be axed and the number of vehicles being produced would be reduced by 56,000. Currently the Honda Civic is exported to 60 countries worldwide.

David Hodgetts, director of Honda UK Manufacturing said "The European car market is not showing any signs of recovery yet and therefore, we have to reduce our production output furthe. We will continue to take prompt and flexible counter-measures to ensure that we can meet these challenges with this severe market situation."

EU business ministers are meeting in Brussels on Friday to discuss ways to help carmakers through the economic downturn.

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