Amicus Salutes Ease of Redundancy Negotiations With NSK

Amicus Salutes Ease of Redundancy Negotiations With NSK The "vast majority" of the 109 workers made redundant by the Japanese bearing specialist NSK Steering's North-East England plant have agreed to leave voluntarily, the Amicus union confirmed yesterday to the Northern Echo paper, which reported in January this year that NSK planned to cut a third of its 340-strong workforce in light of the end of orders for parts for run-out car platforms cutting output by a forecast 40%. Last night, about two-thirds of the way through the statutory 90-day consultation period, unions said discussions had progressed "extremely well" and most of the 109 workers had agreed to leave voluntarily. Jeff Morland, of the Amicus trade union, told the Echo, "There has been a lot of consultation with the union and employees, and it has gone extremely well, given the circumstances. The vast majority of the people affected are going on mutual grounds, so in that respect it has been a relatively painless exercise.