Toyota to shed up to 100 jobs at Altona

Toyota has announced it will shed up to 100 jobs at its Altona manufacturing plant in response to a drop in export orders. The company says there will be no compulsory redundancies; expressions of interest will be open to all permanent manufacturing employees.

The company says it has experienced a drop in the number of cars built each day from 470 to 431 vehicles as the export market has slowed.

The exact number of voluntary redundancies will be determined based on the number of applications and the skill set of those employees, Toyota said.

“Our employees are our greatest asset, so it is with extreme sadness that we have to adjust our workforce,” said president and CEO Max Yasuda.

“As a manufacturer we are subject to fluctuating orders from our domestic and export markets, so we need to have the flexibility to respond to changes in conditions.

“We will now be working closely with all of our employees to ensure they understand why we have made this decision and support them during this difficult period.”

Yasuda says the company needs to reduce the cost of each of its locally built vehicles by $3800 in the lead-up to 2018.

“Although we have made progress, we are now seeing gaps in our plans that must be closed to secure investment for the next-generation vehicle and to maintain our export program,” Yasuda said.

“This decision-making process has started, so we must show our parent company that we are not only achieving our targets, but that we have the relevant plans in place to achieve them right up until 2018.”

Employees who take up the voluntary redundancy will leave Toyota from 29 November.