480 Panasonic jobs lost

Almost 500 workers at a Panasonic electronics plant in Wales are being issued with redundancy notices which were threatened earlier this year, it was confirmed today.

In January this year manufacturer Matsushita Electric, which trades as Panasonic, announced it was proposing to stop manufacturing colour televisions and set-top boxes in Cardiff by the end of 2004.

Plans to transfer production of the items to the Czech Republic were announced.

At the time, the company, which had a workforce of more than 1,000 in Cardiff, said “increasingly intense competition from global manufacturers and sharply falling prices” had prompted the proposal.

Around 600 job losses were initially threatened – but the company today said there would be 480 redundancy notices.

A company spokesman said: “We started issuing redundancy notices yesterday and today. We expect the process to be over shortly.

“We announced back in January that we were going to transfer production.”

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain previously said the news was a “major blow“.

Welsh economic development minister Andrew Davies also said in January that he was “saddened” by the announcement.

Owen John Thomas, Plaid Cymru Assembly Member for South Wales Central, said Wales must look to invest in local industries offering high skilled jobs.