Redundant
workers from the Jacobs manufacturing plant in Sheffield, which recently closed
down, are being helped into new employment by a mutual assistance scheme being
run by engineering companies across the region.
The
Engineering Employers’ Federation Sheffield Association is sending details of
employees facing redundancy to every other member business.
“In
this way we can get straight to the people needing both management and shop
floor workers. We don’t become involved in the actual recruitment – our job is
to alert member companies to the availability of well-trained people with
experience in the industry,” said Gordon Scott, association director of the EEF
Sheffield Association
Scott
said the association has had a large number of e-mails and phone calls from
interested firms in the region after sending out a list of former Jacobs staff
who are available for work.
“Although
we haven’t placed people with everyone who has contacted us we have been able
to help find new jobs for both hourly operatives and salaried staff. Several
senior managers are also in line for new jobs,
“We
have had a difficult time since 1999, losing about 8 per cent of our industry’s
workforce locally, but there are sectors of engineering that are picking up
well and they inevitably find that skills shortages are developing,” said
Scott.
