‘Shoddy move’

A plan by the bosses at Princess Yachts in Plymouth to get rid of more than 100 probationers and those with less than two years’ service will be strongly resisted, Unite said today (September 4).

Unite said that the management was dressing up this move as performance dismissals, when it was ‘a shoddy move’ taken without the agreed consultation process.

Unite said that it would be pursuing protective award claims for the affected workers due to the lack of redundancy consultation, as they face being sacked tomorrow (September 5).

Unite regional officer Dave Springbett said, “What we have here is a shoddy move to sack more than 100 probationers and those with less than two years’ service without going through the proper consultation process.

“The management is alleging that these workers are underperforming. If that were the case, the company would be instituting a replacement programme for those being unfairly sacked, but it hasn’t.

“What the company is dressing up as a performance management programme is, in fact, an arbitrary cost-cutting redundancy exercise. We believe that it could be the first such tranche of job losses.

“We will be pursing protective award claims due to the lack of proper and statutory redundancy consultation for these members, despite Unite requesting such a dialogue on a number of occasions.

“Even at this eleventh hour, we are calling for the company to rescind this proposal. Unite’s door is open 24/7 for constructive talks on this issue.”

The company employs about 3,000 workers at its Devon operation.