TOYOTA’S Altona manufacturing plant has not ruled out further redundancies over the next 12 months as the company on Monday began laying off one in 10 of its 3500 workers.
Toyota spokeswoman Beck Angel said the decision to make 350 workers redundant was not made lightly.
“The reality is our production levels have reduced due to a number of reasons, including the high Australian dollar, and the workforce is too big for the number of cars that need to be built,” she said.
“If market conditions remain stable and we meet our current forecast, there will be no plans for further workplace adjustments.”
Werribee’s Charles ‘Chook’ Allan was among the first to be told he had lost his job.
Mr Allan said he and about 50 co-workers had been assembled at 7am and told of their fate.
The 43-year-old, who has been working at the Altona plant for 18 years, said he was still in shock. “It’s been a tough week, not knowing and not sleeping well. But this morning I just had this funny feeling that I was going.”
He said the presence of the security guards at the plant was unnecessary and demeaning.
“I’ve worked there for 18 years. What am I going to do? Scratch a car? Give me a break.”
Altona MP Jill Hennessy called on the state government to develop a jobs plan to protect manufacturing jobs and help redundant workers find new jobs in “a very tough jobs market”.
-Goya Dmytryshchak, with The Age
