Six month deadline’s a challenge
THE agency responsible for placing redundant Corus workers in new jobs and training said it would be a “major challenge” to match its previous record for finding places for 70-80% of staff involved in large scale industrial lay-offs within six months.
More than 1,000 Corus staff and contractors had taken advantage of a two-day training and recruitment fair for those affected by the mothballing of Teesside Cast Products in Redcar by the time doors closed last night.
Taking part were 56 employers and training organisations and the event drew a similar response to one organised by regional development agencey One North East for Nissan workers last year.
“Experience has shown us that after six months, 80% or more of redundant staff are either in new employment or retraining for new opportunities. This was the case after the closure of the Samsung plant at Wynyard Park back in 2004 - and a similar picture after the closure of the LG Philips plant in Durham a year later,” a spokesperson said.
Stockton MP Dari Taylor, who led the inquiry into the handling of the TCP crisis that reported on Monday, was sceptical that would be achieved in the short or long term, especially if the employment gap left by Corus was to be filled by upcoming green industries.
“This is a steel community, the whole of the economy is wrapped around Corus. To get it wrapped around other industries takes a cultural shift, let alone an economic shift - that’s very hard to do,” she said.
ONE admitted that TCP presented a major challenge “given the number of workers facing redundancy and the fact that the economy has just emerged from recession”.
However efforts could be boosted by news yesterday that the Government was considering a bid for £8m to find jobs for a year for 800 workers affected by the mothballing.
The proposal, put forward by local Corus management and unions and supported by One North East, would, in effect, pay wage subsidies in return for training and development provided by local firms.
ONE, which described the money as a “bursary”, said it could prevent a skills drain from Teesside.
