The weakness of Australia's manufacturing sector continues to be felt as 126 workers at an automotive facility in Victoria found they were stood down by the APV Automotive Components in Melbourne.
Coburg-based APV, which opened in 1946, went into receivership on Tuesday due to the decline in orders for Holden, Ford and Toyota vehicles.
The incident happened a day after Toyota axed 350 employees due to a 36 per cent decline in production at the Japanese carmaker's Altona facility. Holden laid off 100 casual employees in February and received $275 million taxpayer subsidies in March to keep manufacturing vehicles in Australia for another 10 years.
Some of the APV workers who were stood down had been with the company for years. APV manufactured fuel fillers, rear suspension parts and steel and fabricated components.
Stephen Longley of PPB Advisory, the receiver for APV, said it had no choice except to make the 126 workers redundant for the firm to resume trading. He said automotive manufacturing is one of the hardest hit industries in Australia and the failure of APV to diversify made it extremely difficult for the company.
He said there are not enough funds to meet payroll and other operating costs. Mr Longley said that PPB would meet with APV's customers, employees, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and suppliers to attempt to restructure the auto parts company with the aim of reviving operations.
Victorian Opposition leader Daniel Andrew said that what happened to APV should remind Premier Ted Baillieu to craft a plan to create and secure jobs.
"We've got real challenges right across the Victorian economy and this is another example of why Mr Baillieu needs to start working to keep Victorians in work.... For these 126 and for thousands of others, the premier just can't keep going on burying his head in the sand. There is a jobs crisis and he needs to act," 9 News quoted Mr Andrews.
Source:IBTimes
© 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
