Ford to sack white-collar workers

FORD Australia has confirmed the news from a number of GoAuto sources this week that it is about to retrench an unspecified number of white-collar workers.

However, the company is busy hosing down speculation running throughout its dealer network that it will close all of its state-based regional offices as part of a continued push to downsize its office-based staff in line with recent production cuts.

GoAuto has been told that the lease on one of Ford’s regional outposts would not be renewed at the end of this year, sparking rumours that state offices were to be closed and run out of Broadmeadows.

But Ford spokeswoman Sinead McAlary categorically denied any state offices would close.

“No, that’s absolutely not the plan,” said Ms McAlary. “We’re looking at the total business at the moment… but we’re definitely not closing regional offices or anything like that.” GoAuto understands that new Ford Australia president Marin Burela, in his first meeting with dealers on Monday (September 29), went out of his way to scotch reports on changes to field representation and assured Ford dealers that no regional Ford offices would close.

However, Ms McAlary confirmed Ford would soon announce another round of staff cutbacks, this time involving white-collar workers, following its August 22 announcement that it will seek between 300 and 350 voluntary redundancies – or 15 per cent of its factory floor workforce – split evenly between its Broadmeadows assembly plant and the Geelong engine plant by the end of this year.

The earlier than expected engine plant staff reduction would take place ahead of the total shutdown of production in 2010, when all 600 engine plant workers will cease to produce Ford’s homegrown inline six-cylinder engine, which will be replaced by an imported Duratec V6 from the US.

All of the production staff cuts announced in August came as part of Ford’s planned 23 per cent reduction in total production before the end of this year. From mid-November, Ford plans to reduce Falcon and Territory production from an hourly running rate of 52 to 40 vehicles, representing a daily build rate reduction from 365 to 285 vehicles.

At the time, Ford made no mention of white-collar staff reductions, but Ms McAlary said Ford employees were told of the impending office job cuts around the same time.

“We did announce, as you know, a month and a half ago in August – the same day that (former president) Bill (Osborne) left, that we were doing a down-balance of production, and that there would be some hourly workers directly affected by that,” she said. “As part of that 25 per cent cut in production, we are looking at the rest of the organisation as well, because you don’t take 25 per cent of your production out without looking at your total cost structure as well.

“We are looking at the total business, but what it’s going to mean, apart from saying we’re not going to that extreme, I can’t confirm or deny at this stage.

“We have already confirmed to employees that we’re looking at a restructure across the whole organisation,” said Ms McAlary, confirming this would be in addition to the 300-350 factory job cuts announced in August.

Ms McAlary also confirmed the next round of Ford job cuts would be white-collar workers, but would not confirm GoAuto sources that say the number will be about 300.

“What the extent of that will be and what areas it will be in we’re still working through,” she said. “We’re not in a position to, because we haven’t finalised it, put any specific numbers on it.

“The company obviously has more areas than just manufacturing and marketing and sales – there’s customer service, there’s IT, finance, purchasing. We’re just looking at the whole organisation to see what makes the most sense going forward.” Asked whether the number of white-collar workers to be made redundant will be more or less than the 300-350 factory workers, Ms McAlary said: “I can’t go into that detail at the moment because it is not finalised. We’re working through that at the moment, but obviously our goal is to sell as many cars as we can.

“Our new VP of marketing and sales (Beth Donovan) started just two weeks ago, so it would be wrong of me to pre-empt what any of her plans or decisions are going to be.” Nor would Ms McAlary say when the next Ford job cuts would be announced. “Until we know what makes the most sense for our organisation, I’m not prepared to put a timeframe on it,” she said. “However, there’s nothing untoward. It is simply in line with making sure the business fits with our production, nothing more than that.” To the end of August, sales of Ford’s Falcon Ute are down 5.3 per cent on 2007 levels, while Falcon sedan sales are down 7.9 per cent and Territory sales are 22.3 per cent lower.

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