LDV workers in Birmingham face weeks without pay

Mar 2 2009 by Jon Griffin, Birmingham Mail

AROUND 700 workers at crisis-hit LDV face weeks without pay after the Birmingham van-maker’s banked hours scheme expired, it emerged today.

Workers and their families now face a desperate fight for financial survival, with the future of the factory still hanging by a thread.

The van-maker confirmed today that the factory’s working hours scheme – which had guaranteed pay for nearly three months despite the production shutdown – had finally run its course. The expiry of the scheme means that hundreds of manufacturing workers now face having to claim state benefits to support themselves and their families - while waiting to see if the Washwood Heath factory has any future.

LDV PR and Marketing Director Guy Jones said today: “This does mean that for several weeks, workers will not be getting anything now - everybody will go through that.

“It is an extremely worrying time. We had kept pay at full rates - they were fully paid until the week before last, which is unheard of.

“By doing that, we have come to the end of the process. We were hoping that we would not go into statutory lay-offs. We cannot resolve this until we know which way the company is going.”