Vestas looks set to lay off 220 staff members both here in the UK and Denmark, it has been announced today (Thursday).
Island Echo has learnt that just 25 of these 220 positions will be lost in the United Kingdom, but the company has been unable to comment on the specific locations of these job losses.
It is unknown at this time if any jobs will be lost here on the Isle of Wight. However, a spokesperson for the company has confirmed that today’s announcement is not expected to impact hourly-paid workers at factories.
Vestas operate 2 sites on the Island; Monks Brook in Newport and Stag Lane between Newport and Cowes.
Vestas has begun the integration of Vestas and MHI Vestic Offshore Wind into one organisation that is based on one shared operating model and unified culture. As a result, were will be synergies across several functions, which has unfortunately led to redundancies.
Henrik Andersen, Group President and CEO of Vestas, has said:
“Since we announced the agreement to acquire MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, we have meticulously planned how we can build a united and strong Vestas organisation that can lead and scale up in both onshore and offshore wind. I want to thank everyone for their hard work and dedication during a difficult period where my colleagues have contributed to both the integration planning and execution of commercial commitments.
“We have now started implementing our integration plans, which unfortunately includes letting around 220 hardworking colleagues go. It is never easy to make such a decision or say goodbye to good colleagues but integrating and simplifying two companies inherently creates overlaps between functions and it’s therefore necessary if we want to create a competitive and scalable organisation”.
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Vestas will now go into a consultation process with relevant employee representatives and aims to have clarity for most employees by end of January.
Oh the writing was in the wall when the MHI part of MHI-Vestas sold off their shares late last year. Sold almost all them all off to Vestas but kept a small percentage to keep themselves on the board of directors. MHI (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) will continue making turbines but in the far east and Vestas will take the European market. Although now that we are out of Europe maybe they’ll take the business back to Denmark.
What wait I thought we left the EU not the continent of Europe!
I think you know what I meant Robert. Or are you being deliberately obtuse?
Even less hope of securing a job once thousands more homes cover this Island and are filled by many of those from elsewhere.
Vote them where they belong, on the same dole queue, albeit arriving by a Jag, not a cycle.
Sorry for all those losing their jobs, as now, with more homes soon to cover once green beauty, the chances of finding suitable employ is vastly going to decrease as these home fill with many more non Islanders.
Hard times for all thanks to mis-guided or likely greed, from those ‘we’ foolishly elected here , NEVER AGAIN
Jobs are finished on the Island
It’s Utility or Supermarket work
Tourism is practically finished on the Island
Here we go. The gradual trickle that will lead to the deluge of jobs flooding away from the Island. No European funding for the business now that we are out of the EU. No subsidies and extra tarrifs on materials coming in. It’ll be cheaper to send the business back to Denmark.
This was on the cards from the day Mitsubishi Heavy Industries sold almost all their shares back to Vestas.
Where does it say island jobs are affected ?
Let’s see how it pans out over the next month or so. 25 jobs over the UK business. Factories and facilities all over the UK. We are still in the UK aren’t we?
Mission creep.
Let’s check back agai in March.
About one month before the Christmas shutdown there was an exercise in place which basically divided the factory and it’s staff into two halves. They would build a blade on one side of the factory, record all of the data, faults, successes etc. Then they would build a blade on the other side and do the same. Record the data etc. From this they could see who, what and why things were productive, counterproductive, fluid, dispensible etc. It was sold to the production operatives as a general overviewing of the process to help the business iron out a few recurring issues by better understanding the whole of the build from start to finish. At the same time there were people from the new management team (Vestas) overseeing, shadowing and monitoring shop floor processes and shop floor managers. A sort of covert skills audit. And here we are now. The results are in and the great reset begins.
Funny how everyone jumps to conclusions when they have absolutely no idea…. If you read the article it says no hourly paid workers are affected. As this group of workers make up the majority of the workforce on the Island, the impact will be minimal. It is sad that a small amount of employees in the UK will lose their job.
I think you will find that the majority of the workers enjoy working for the company and the only ones who bad mouth them, are ones who have ‘left’ for other reasons.
“Impact will be minimal”.
If you were one of the ‘minimals’ the impact would be catastrophic.
How do you know I’m not one of those impacted!!!
Are you? If so, in what way?
Because you stated that the majority of employees enjoy working there. If you believe that then you must be in no way connected to the reality of the job. I’ll bet that if anyone with any clout in that place were to ask if anyone would fancy redundancy, there would be a stampede. Especially among the longer term employees.
Good news!
Apparently it’s like a ghost town in there right now. Lots of staff off sick with God knows what. Lots of shortages on the shop floor. Management working from home and keeping a safe distance. Everyone else expected to turn up, day in, day out.
Surely it will backfire?
Furlough would seem like the best option instead of trying to run on a reduced workforce.
At least the client would believe and excuse missed delivery due to Covid shutdown. To try limping along on reduced numbers would look embarrassing and very much like bad planning or management. Maybe that’s the plan. Either way it’ll cost something. Probably jobs.