I think they are just trying to get people to fill the forms in. Only when you sign a contract with IBC are you an employee. They are taking 40 or 50 people a day over to the Frontera and van line and training them and after a period of time they will be offered a contract. It is also meant to cover the seven years work that we were promised by Vauxhall for the Epsilon model that we're not receiving. The fact they've just taken this away shows that the agreements made with the unions are not worth the paper they are written on.
Management can turn around for whatever reason and change it.
Because the market in Europe, especially in Germany, is collapsing they're cutting jobs. It is easier and cheaper to sack workers in England than on the continent, where contracts are legally binding in law. Here contracts are just not worth the paper they are written on. The company also keeps changing the goal posts on the closing date for the option forms. Before Christmas it was supposed to January 29 but the union told people not to fill in the forms because they were still trying to save the plant.