Hours cut for workers at Bognor factory Eurotek

Scores of staff at a leading Bognor Regis company have been put on short-time working.

The 70-74 factory floor workers at Eurotek have had an hour a day cut from their jobs for this week and next week.

The company says the measure at its base on the Southern Cross Industrial Estate '“ where 130 people are employed '“ is needed to ensure it remains competitive during an early year lull in its business of supplying office furniture.

But it is confident that the workers will have the missing five hours a week back at the start of next month.

One of those who has seen his pay cut by the measure, who asked not to be named, said: "It's all the hourly paid staff who have been affected by this.

"Everybody feels pretty low about it. They are fed up. It's always the guys on the lowest wages who are the ones hit like this. None of the management team or office staff have to suffer."

Eurotek chief executive Terry Kuhler said: "We think it's prudent to cut the hours of the factory staff for the next two weeks because the return to work of our customers after Christmas has been very slow.

"We are confident this is a short term blip. We have got 12m in sales behind us in the last financial year. We have got money in the bank and we are a strong and stable business."

He said that all the staff affected were paid more than the minimum wage. The decision to cut the employees' hours was made rather than changing the factory's two shift system of working which was essential to the company's reputation of delivering products on time. The firm wanted to avoid making redundancies when the staff's skills were likely to be needed shortly. It was also considered essential to retain employees such as sales teams on full time working to enable them to bring in new orders.

Mr Kuhler remained confident Eurotek would benefit this year from the government's pledge to keep spending. Eurotek is one of only six furniture firms approved for government contracts. "I'd expect us to be expanding later this year if Gordon Brown is true to his word," explained Mr Kuhler.

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