NEC plans put 465 Livingston jobs at risk

Published on Monday 27 May 2002 01:00

ELECTRONICS giant NEC was last night on the brink of completing its withdrawal from Scotland as it revealed it is planning to sell or close its Livingston computer plant with the potential loss of around 465 jobs.

The news was met with dismay by union leaders and local politicians, who had not been consulted on the move and who are now seeking urgent meetings with the company.

It is understood that NEC plans to shift production of its Packard Bell desktop computers out of the UK to China, where costs are lower.

GMB union regional secretary Robert Parker said: "We’ve not been advised. We would be extremely concerned if the company is making public statements without consulting us."

Amicus regional secretary Danny Carrigan added: "It is disappointing that employees are hearing about this from newspapers," and urged management to meet with staff today to explain the situation.

Scottish Enterprise was unable to say whether the company would be offered cash incentives to stay in Scotland.

An NEC spokesperson yesterday confirmed the firm was "reviewing its strategy" and said the company was "considering" selling plants in Scotland and Malaysia.

But the spokesperson declined to give a timescale for the disposal and would not comment on what would happen if NEC failed to find a buyer.

In December, NEC came under fire for announcing just days before Christmas that it would cull 1,260 Scottish jobs at its semiconductor plant in Livingston.

About 200 staff are understood to still work there, winding down the operation.

Local councillor Willie Dunn said the manner of the latest announcement was a slap in the face for NEC’s staff. He said the company had treated its employees "in a bad way".

The Livingston plant produces 350,000 desktop computers per year under the Packard Bell name.

The central belt has suffered a wave of manufacturing job losses as the global information technology downturn forces firms, some of whom had received multi-million grants to move to Scotland, to slash production.

NEC’s latest jobs announcement, follows a sharp deterioration in its operations last year, largely due to the downturn in the semiconductor and IT markets. The group suffered a 312 billion yen (1.72 billion) net loss on sales of 5,101 billion yen (28.06 billion).