Hewden workers told: Move 260 miles to keep your job

Mar 10 2008 By Richard Mooney

THE EIGHTY Hewden Stuart employees facing the axe are being offered the chance to keep their jobs, but only if 260 miles south move to Cannock.

As reported on Thursday by the Hamilton Advertiser online team, the closure of the Tannochside office may bring around the loss of around 80 jobs.

Doug Sprout, Financial Director for the Finning Group, explained to us that current employees would be offered relocation packages if they chose to move.

He said: “Tannochside will close and we will be expecting people to relocate with us down to Cannock.

“Our hope is that we will get a reasonable number of people in transferring to Cannock.”

Doug explained that there is several opportunities for employees to expand their career in Cannock but admits that it is high expectations for people to people to make the move.

He said: “I don’t pretend that it’s not a simple thing, we empathise with people in this type of process.

“I think as long as we offer people the relocation, support, the encouragement and the career paths we’ll hopefully get a number of people who will continue to work for us.”

Hewden Stuart’s Tannochside HQ will go through a phase closure over the year, with 100 jobs affected by the shut down in total.

You can listen to the full Doug Sprout interview here.