U.K. Visteon Workers Accept Improved Severance Package

The Visteon Corp. dispute in the U.K. is over, with former workers accepting an improved severance deal.

According to the union Unite, the package is up to 10 times that originally offered when the firm closed plants in Enfield and Basildon, England, and Belfast, Northern Ireland.

“The deal now on the table is a massive improvement from where we started, which was 610 men and women thrown on the dole with only the expectation of basic state redundancy pay,” said Unite union general secretary Tony Woodley.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, added, “This is a proud moment for these workers and their union. It shows that even in the bleakest of circumstances, if you stand up to defend what is right you will very often win.

“Ultimately, Visteon and Ford accepted that they could not wash their hands of these workers and have gone a long way toward doing the decent thing by the workers and their families.”

The trade union said the majority of former employees would now receive the statutory redundancy pay Visteon had offered them, plus 52 weeks’ pay and a 5.2 percent increase.

Workers at Visteon’s Belfast site have said they will continue to occupy the factory until the agreed settlement has been paid.

Filed by Anthony Clark of Plastics News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

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