Furniture workers' hours slashed as firm fights recession

The employees of Eurotek will see their working week cut by 7 hours from next Monday.

The effect will be to slash the average take-home pay of the 70 or so workers by 38 a week. This will reduce their income by about a fifth.

It is not known how long the reduced hours will last. They have been blamed on the recession and the April-May group of bank holidays.

One of the affected employees said: "We are going to lose a day's wages each week. The mood on the factory floor is not very happy at all.

"Losing that amount of money each week is going to have a big effect on me. There's no way I can make it up."

The workers at the office furniture manufacturer were summoned to a meeting on Tuesday (May 12) when the cut in hours was announced.

The worker said those making the furniture, based on the Southern Cross Industrial Estate, were particularly angry because only hourly-paid staff were affected.

The short week is being imposed through cutting each working day by an hour and a half.

Requests from the workers to have the hours added together to give them an extra day off were rejected by the management. A suggestion to scrap the late shift to save money was also turned down.

Eurotek is still well placed to survive, its chief executive has said. A statement by Terry Kuhler said orders of more than 1m were on their way for delivery in July-August.

A London showroom was about to open, an export drive was under way, and extra sales staff and customer incentives were being brought in.

But the reduction in hours was necessary in the short term to avoid job losses.