80 jobs face axe threat at Diodes

EIGHTY jobs are under threat at Diodes, formerly Zetex, in Chadderton, due to a drop in worldwide demand for semi-conductors.

Talks took place with the unions yesterday and on Monday when production director Dave Benstead outlined the position.

A consultation process has started at the Stockfield Road site, where 424 staff are employed.

Around 60 workers out of 136 employed on the manufacturing side of the operation could lose their jobs, with a further 20 at risk in other departments.

The decision, taken by the new owners at their worldwide headquarters in the United States, comes as the business, which designs and manufactures high performance semi-conductor solutions for a broad range of applications, is investing around £4.2m ($6.5m) in a new, six-inch wafer line.

This will replace the existing four-inch line, a development will allow Diodes to add 50 per cent more capacity to their manufacturing capability.

Mr Benstead said: “The fact is that we simply cannot sell all the products we currently manufacture. This is due to the worldwide market.

“The situation is quite simple — what do we do with staff when we don’t need them to make anything? The orders are still coming in, but not at the volumes we require to maintain the existing workforce. We hope that in the second six months of 2009 the market will improve and we will need more people.”

Mr Benstead added that, in consultation with the unions, a number of options were being explored including annualised hours and short-time working but conceded that, even if these talks come to fruition, some people would lose their jobs.

The manufacturing workforce has been asked to take an extended Christmas break starting on Sunday through to January 6, resulting in a loss of three days’ pay.

Union representatives expressed shock at the scale of the proposed redundancies.

Unite’s Martin Gleeson said: “We are particularly concerned that a large proportion of the 80 jobs earmarked to go are direct production workers employed in manufacturing.

“The union has opened negotiations with the company on possible ways to reduce the number of job losses.”