More than 430 staff at Mitsubishi Electric factory in Livingston face redundancy

More than 430 people are at risk of redundancy at a Mitsubishi Electric factory in Scotland.

The plant in Livingston, West Lothian, the largest heat pump manufacturer in the UK, has been manufacturing air conditioning units for over thirty years.

The firm, which has factories in the US, Mexico and Italy, employs over 1,600 people in Livingston, but are looking to cut the workforce down to around 1200 workers within the next 45 days.

Staff were taken into the canteen on Tuesday where they were told that a redundancy consultation for 436 workers had begun, employees told STV News.

‘Absolute shock’

“They pulled us in to the canteen and gave us a briefing on the progress into the companies targets, about how they not as high as they should be”, an employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told STV News.

“And that they can’t see it picking up any time soon.

“They then told us that they were unfortunately looking to make redundancies, and were asking for 436 volunteers.

“There was just absolute shock in the room.

“Especially considering they had promised this wouldn’t happen only six months earlier.

“I’ve worked there over ten years, but there is entire families who work there, from grandparents to grandkids.

“As a company they are always banging on about mental health and wellbeing, about how important it is. But this is clearly not the case.”

Labour’s Gregor Poynton, MP for Livingston, raised the potential losses at the Mitsubishi plant during a debate at Westminster on Wednesday.

He said: “This week we’ve heard the concerning news from Mitsubishi Electric, a plant in my constituency, that is looking to reduce its workforce from its current compliment 1,600 by 440 jobs.

“These are highly skilled workforce creating world-leading products, air source heat pumps and air conditioning units which are absolutely vital as we look to decarbonise our economy in the future.

“However, no fault of their own, due to short-term economic pressures they’ve seen their order book fall away.
Can I ask the secretary of state to meet with management, workers and me to firstly, to see whatever the UK Government can do to support us?”

Ian Murray, Scotland secretary, said: “I’m really sorry to hear of the difficulties faced by Mitsubishi Electric’s workforce and the uncertainty faced by those workers during this difficult time.

“I will of course commit, as a matter of priority, to meeting with the company and workforce in the coming weeks.”

Mitsubishi Electric and Unite the Union has been contacted for comment.

Mitsubishi Electric will ‘try to avoid any compulsory redundancies’

In a letter entitled “notification of potential redundancies”, seen by STV News, the company wrote to employees: “I am writing to inform you of potential redundancies for the employees of Mitsubishi Electric Air Conditioning Systems Europe Ltd (M-ACE).

“Unfortunately, the organisation has recently experienced a deterioration in demand due to market conditions in Mainland Europe.

“As a result, the organisation must align the headcount required to match the expected volumes over 2024-25.

“In the current circumstances the proposed course of action would be to make redundancies in the areas where we have identified that there is insufficient work for the current number of employees. As laid down by Section 188 of the Trade Union & Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and therefore, this letter is sent to you to form the beginning of the consultation process

“In an attempt to avoid any redundancy dismissals, we would like to enter into meaningful discussions with you as a representative of M-ACE Consultative Committee. If we are unable to agree any alternative course of action with you, we would still try to avoid any compulsory redundancies by seeking volunteers across all appropriate sections of the workforce.”