car news - Vauxhall Hit By The Credit Crunch

In what appears to be another car manufacturer being hit by the credit crunch, Vauxhall is offering its workforce a chance to take a sabbatical on 30% pay. This sabbatical can last up to nine months, and presumably is a way to cut costs without actually having to cut any jobs for the time being.
General Motors (the owner of Vauxhall) approached unions at the Ellesmere Port plat in Cheshire with the plan. The scheme would see staff away from work from January until September 2009 – whilst the bank balance and industry is continually assessed (with improvements hopefully quite early in the year in the marketplace).
Of course, this is one way in which to avoid any sort of compulsory redundancy, though is reliant on some staff members seeing this offer as a good one. If uptake is good, there’s a possibility that the other plants owned and operated by General Motors may well follow suit in these turbulent times.
Car sales in the UK have fallen on average by 37% compared with the same time last year, meaning business is very slow indeed for many showrooms. This is, in turn, is causing problems for car manufacturers, who simply aren’t seeing demand for new cars like they did even last year.