News | Wednesday, 29 October 2008

Methode Electronics goes on four-day week

After shelving plans to lay off between 120 and 200 staff, Methode Electronics has this week decided to put its entire 650 workforce on a four-day week starting Monday.
The decision has been taken after consultation with the General Workers’ Union, which met with company representatives when it learnt that Methode intended shrinking its payroll overhead after it registered a 25 per cent drop in its order book.
After Trelleborg, Methode is the second locally based automotive components manufacturer this month to apply this measure in a bid to save 20 per cent of costs attributable to wages.
GWU officials have confirmed with sister paper MaltaToday that after meeting with the firm’s management, Methode have decided to put on hold by four weeks a decision that would have made up to 200 of its employees redundant. The German and UK plants of the same company have followed suit.
Methode Electronics, formerly known as Merit, was the first German company that invested in Malta and has been operating locally for the past 30 years.
Last Friday, a total of 80 employees from company subsidiary Hetronics were also put on a four-day week schedule. No union was consulted on this measure since the workers are as yet not represented by any trade union. Methode Electronics acquired Hetronics on October 1.

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