‘WE’VE been shafted,’ ex-Visteon Enfield Unite branch chairman Steve Parenti told News Line yesterday.
He explained that sacked workers on Ford Mirror Contracts, which were agreed when Ford spun off Visteon in 2000, had finally received a payoff of £40,000-£50,000.
However workers who subsequently joined Visteon Enfield plant on Cost Competitive Rate (CCR) contracts have only been offered £10,500-£11,500.
Parenti told News Line: ‘We were led to understand we would get between £18,000 and £20,000.
‘Ford workers got a good deal.
‘The CCR workers should get a good pay out.
‘We would have been happy with £18-20,000.
‘We’ve all been through a lot of stress. My wife had a mini-stroke.
‘Those on the Ford Mirror contract get 52 weeks but the figures have just come out and we’ve got just 26 weeks.
‘It’s like we were second class citizens.’
Belfast Visteon convenor John Maguire told news Line: ‘We’ve got 23 members on CCR contracts.
‘We think they should get 52 weeks not just 26 weeks.
‘We’re thinking of taking out a legal case and are consulting a lawyer.’
Sacked Visteon workers at the Enfield plant are angry at the differential treatment being handed out over redundancy pay-offs.
Unite member Kathy Bunce, added: ‘We were told we would get 12 weeks and what did we get — three weeks, so we’re nine weeks short, that’s £3,000.
‘We were working on different wages in there – anyway that shouldn’t have been allowed to happen in the first place.’
Another Unite member, Rasheila Chudasama, said: ‘They offered us 26 weeks plus 12 weeks, plus our holiday pay. All we want to know is why we aren’t getting that money. We supported the Ford workers – we want their support now.’
One of the ex-Ford workers J. Patel said: ‘All the money from the MPs, all those expenses should be paid to the Visteon workers to make their redundancy pay up so everyone is treated equally.’
Steve Parenti added to News Line: ‘We are very angry and disappointed at the way Visteon has treated us. For the 30 workers on Cost Competitive Rate contracts who joined the company in 2005 they are getting a small pay-off.
‘We want the same as Visteon New Hires are getting, who came in in 2002. They are getting a special payment of 52 weeks redundancy.
‘We want compensation for all the suffering we went through, why are they getting 52 weeks and we are getting 26 weeks? It works out that Visteon New Hires are getting around £20,350 while we are being offered £10,100.
‘The Ford workers who got Ford Mirror terms when the company was spun off in 2001, are getting between £40,000 and £50,000.
‘Another thing the company are doing is they have only just given us the figures and they expect us to give them an answer on Monday, if we don’t they say they will withdraw the offer, that would mean us ending up with nothing.
‘I feel like chaining myself to the plant until we get what we want.’
