'Job outlook bleak for UK manufacturing workers'

More than half of Britain's leading manufacturing firms expect to cut jobs this year, offering “bleak” prospects for workers, a new report revealed today.

Research for union Amicus showed that 53% of chief executives in the UK’s top 100 firms expected to make redundancies in 2004.

Only a third of the 100 executives polled said they were optimistic about the economy, compared with half of union shop stewards who took part in the same survey.

The chief executives were also pessimistic about future spending on recruitment and training in the coming year, with one in five predicting they would spend less than last year.

There were huge differences on how helpful the Department of Trade and Industry wasperceived to be towards manufacturing, with 43% of union representatives saying the DTI was “quite supportive”, while 71% of executives described it as “not supportive.”

One in three shop stewards said they were involved in developing their firm’s business plans and strategies and were consulted on investment levels.

Derek Simpson, general secretary of Amicus, said: “These survey results explode the myth of top floor versus shop floor and demonstrate a great deal of consensus between workers and bosses.

“However, shop stewards are clearly not as well informed on chief executive plans for restructuring as they might be.

“The figures also make evident the short-termism endemic in manufacturing by chief executives when it comes to training and investment.”