This week’s news in brief: strike ballot at Ford

Staff at Ford’s Dagenham plant are to be balloted on strike action following a two-hour unofficial walkout last week. The move follows Ford’s announcement in May that it plans to end production at the plant. The company has said it intends to move production to the continent.

Swedish researchers have pinned the blame for so-called sick building syndrome on computers. Air conditioning systems and photocopiers have previously been singled out as possible culprits. But the researchers, whose study is published in Environmental Science and Technology, said more than half the VDUs tested produced significant levels of the chemical triphenyl phosphate, which has been linked to a range of complaints.

Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff is to make half its 1,200-strong workforce redundant. The ailing shipbuilder recently said redundancies would be inevitable due to restructuring of the business.

The Probation Service is to see staff numbers boosted by a third over the next three years. At a Probation Service conference in Manchester, Home Office minister Paul Boateng said 4,500 staff, including 1,500 probation officers, would join the service as part of a Government plan to address rising crime rates.

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Noel O’Reilly is the new editor of Personnel Today. Noel is rejoining the magazine after two years as deputy editor of the weekly medical newspaper Doctor. He has a solid understanding of HR issues and previously spent eight years at Personnel Today in a range of roles including deputy editor and features editor. “I am very keen to get feedback and am looking forward to meeting as many readers as possible, particularly at the forthcoming CIPD conference at Harrogate,” he said.

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