A truly terrible week for Toyota culminated in the announcement of 750 redundancies at its plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire. "[Last year] was a tough year for Toyota Manufacturing UK," the carmaker said. "The decision is related to production capacity and efficiency, not to production volumes."
The Burnaston plant manufactures Toyota's Avensis and Auris models. BBC News reports the redundancies will be voluntary and negotiated with the company's workforce. Toyota employs about 4,000 people in the UK.
The news about layoffs comes on top of a massive worldwide recall of millions of cars and the suspension of sales of eight popular US models.
What is redundancy?
As discussed in greater detail elsewhere on FindLaw, redundancy occurs when an employer needs to reduce the workforce for a reason unconnected to the conduct or capability of the employee(s) concerned.
Ordinarily, an employee's job must disappear before they can be made redundant. However, redundancy bumping is also permitted, which often happens when a senior employee is prepared to take a more junior role to avoid redundancy, thus making a junior employee redundant.
** Information & advice about employee redundancy rights **
You can learn more about employee redundancy rights - including redundancy bumping, redundancy pay and statutory redundancy, and unfair dismissal - on FindLaw.
Alternatively, you may want to speak with an employment law solicitor.
You can find a solicitor in your area for free via solicitor matching services, which can also help you to understand the best course of action for your situation and whether you are ready to hire a solicitor. They may even help you find a solicitor who will agree to take your case on a "no win no fee" basis, which means you don't have to pay for the solicitor's services unless you win your case.
