Bosses at Britain’s premier luxury yacht firm are at loggerheads with union chiefs over plans to axe about 100 workers who have not made the grade after a round of appraisals.
Newly employed staff at Princess Yachts, in Plymouth, have been undergoing an assessment process and those that have not come up to a required standard will be released.
The firm stressed this does not mean workers were being made redundant and said the job losses were part of an annual performance appraisal routine and that the company, which earlier in 2019 announced record profits of £30million, would maintain staffing levels at about 3,000 people.
But the union Unite has vowed to fight the move to reduce the number of probationers and those with less than two years’ service at the company and is demanding payment to anyone who is let go.
It accused management of “dressing up” what it considered to be redundancies and said Princess Yachts had behaved in a “shoddy” fashion and was avoiding a consultation process. Unite said it would pursue protective award claims for affected workers.
Princess Yachts said it was disappointed at the union’s response to what it called an annual staff performance review and claimed it was incorrect to brand the susbsequent job losses as redundancies.
A company spokesman said the firm, which earlier in 2019 was toasting a 24% increase in turnover to £340.3million, must maintain high standards and said: “We don’t want Princess Yachts to lose its leading position in the industry for the quality of its product.”
The firm said dtaffing had increased from 1,800 in 2017 with 1,485 new recruits taken on in two years.
Most Read
Princess Yachts said that every year about 23% of new entrants fail to reach the standard expected and their employment is not continued. The firm release 138 workers in 2017 and 198 in 2018, following rounds of appraisals.
But it insisted it has hired 850 workers since 2018 including 342 already in 2019, and it is from this pool that the current job losses would come.
“The performance appraisal will most likely affect approximately 100 people,” the spokesman said. “Not everyone has the capacity to do what is required in that job.”
He said the firm would continued to recruit and had already taken on 43 apprentices in 2019 and added: “We intend to have a workforce of about 3,000 people.”
Dave Springbett, Unite’s regional officer for the South West, said: “What we have here is a shoddy move to sack more than 100 probationers and those with less than two years’ service without going through the proper consultation process.
South West manufacturing news
“The management is alleging that these workers are underperforming. If that were the case, the company would be instituting a replacement programme for those being unfairly sacked, but it hasn’t.
“What the company is dressing up as a performance management programme is, in fact, an arbitrary cost-cutting redundancy exercise. We believe that it could be the first such tranche of job losses.
Don’t miss
“We will be pursing protective award claims due to the lack of proper and statutory redundancy consultation for these members, despite Unite requesting such a dialogue on a number of occasions.
How to contact William Telford and Business Live
Business Live's South West Business Reporter is William Telford. William has more than a decade's experience reporting on the business scene in Plymouth and the South West. He is based in Plymouth but covers the entire region.
To contact William: Email: william.telford@reachplc.com - Phone: 01752 293116 - Mob: 07584 594052 - Twitter: - LinkedIn: - Facebook:
Stay in touch: BusinessLive newsletters have been re-designed to make them even better. We send morning bulletins straight to your inbox on the latest news, views and opinion in the South West. Get our breaking news alerts and weekly sector reviews too. Sign up now - it's free and it only takes a minute. To sign up for Business Live's daily newsletters click .
And visit the Business Live South West LinkedIn page
“Even at this eleventh hour, we are calling for the company to rescind this proposal. Unite’s door is open 24/7 for constructive talks on this issue.”
In 2019 Princess Yachts has set new records for yacht sales and employment and has been celebrating its most successful year in its 54 year history with forward orders worth £700million stretching through 2020.
Financial results for the 12 months to December 31, 2018, show record turnover of £340.3million, up £65.9million, that's 24% on 2017. There was also a record operating profit before exceptionals of £29.8million, up £10.9million, or 173%.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) for 2018 was £32.8million up from £14.9million in 2017.