Manufacturing factory to shed jobs

A memo written on February 4, which has been leaked to the Evening Press, revealed that Micro Metalsmiths Ltd, in Kirkbymoorside, was proposing to make 26 redundancies.

But a senior spokesman from the firm today said there would not be as many job losses as originally set out in the memo.

The firm, which has plants in Pickering and Kirkbymoorside, has told employees it is seeking volunteers. One of the firm's managers, Steve Parkin, said an official announcement was expected next week.

"We are not going to have to make as many as 26," he said.

"Things do look a little better, and we have had two or three people who have left anyway which allows us to be not as severe." Last week owner Christopher Shaw said he had no intention of losing his skilled workforce.

The firm, which employs 180 people, producing components for the defence and mobile phone industries, is blaming a downturn in trade.

Competition for trade from the USA in the defence industry and Europe in the phone industry are the main causes.

The memo reveals redundancies are needed in four separate sections, the wax room, the fettling, the foundry, and the machine shop groups.

A consultation process has been set up to identify which workers should lose their jobs.

Line managers will assess workers and give each person individual scores, says the memo. Those with the lowest will be subject to an interview with managers who will then decide who to select for redundancy.

"All employees selected for redundancy who believe that they have been unfairly selected have the right of appeal," says the memo.

Mr Shaw said in a statement last week its Pickering plant would be closing, but the Kirkbymoorside plant would expand.

A planning application to expand the plant there has been submitted to Ryedale District Council.

Despite the redundancy issue Mr Shaw said in his statement he believed the mobile phone market was only temporarily depressed and that it would revive.

Updated: 11:34 Friday, February 15, 2002