Just two months after being told their jobs were safe, staff at a Dundee furniture company have now been told they could be out of work.
JTC Furniture issued letters to employees at its factory at Camperdown Works on Harrison Street this week, stating “it is likely” a number of weekly paid positions will be made redundant as part of an “ongoing reduction process in the business”.
It’s understood that more than 100 workers could be at risk of losing their jobs.
The company missive advised that “all weekly paid positions at Harrison Road have become at risk of redundancy”.
Gordon Linton, chairman of JTC Furniture, said the company was going through the same experience as firms throughout the industry.
He also pointed out that the job-cutting process was at a very early stage.
Mr Linton said: “At the moment I’m not able to put a material number on how many redundancies as the process is still in its very early stages.
“Unfortunately this is the nature of the construction industry at these times of austerity. We’re doing what every other business is doing at the moment due to the downturn in work.
“The managing director and I will need to sit down and commence talks of what to do next.”
UCATT regional organiser, George Ramsay confirmed it was the workers on the factory floor who were most likely to be affected by the redundancies.
He said: “We are aware that there has been a downturn in work at the factory and people losing their jobs is a real risk.
“There are more than 100 people who work on the factory floor at the Camperdown Works who are most likely to be the ones affected.”
JTC had been a customer of the collapsed construction firm Muirfield Contracts, which ceased trading in March.
When that happened, JTC which has more than 300 people across its plants at Camperdown Works and Manhattan Works put some of its staff onto four-day working weeks in a bid to cut costs following a downturn in business.
But in April, managing director David Rand said the spectre of redundancy that loomed over certain posts had disappeared and was predicting a bright future for the firm.
At that time he told staff not to worry as there was “a lot of work in the pipeline” and “there is now no threat of redundancies.”
The group, based at Camperdown Works, specialises in fitted kitchen, bedroom and bathroom furniture for major construction jobs and specialist items for clients such as the health service.