No Permanent Nightshift for Nedcar

09/30/96

Reuters has reported that the Dutch ministry of social affairs did not give Nedcar permission to introduce a permanent nightshift at the company's plant in Born, Netherlands. Nedcar, a joint venture between Volvo Car, Mitsubishi, and the Dutch government, hoped to start the nightshift to help boost production from a planned output of 145,000 in 1996 to 280,000 cars in 1998. The ministry did not grant the permit to the carmaker on the grounds that it is illegal to work more than 28 nightshifts in 13 weeks.

In August Nedcar announced that it would not meet this year's output targets. Mitsubishi Motors Europe told the Dutch media that the company wanted to see more production in Europe and that it might consider producing cars at alternative sites if Nedcar didn't boost output.

Nedcar said that it had to increase its production 25% to 5,000 hours annually, in order to meet its output target. Nedcar spokesman Fokko Haanstra said, "We are looking for an alternative to lengthen our production hours," and added that the boost in production was vitally important.

After the announcement that a permanent nightshift would not be allowed, Swedish automotive group Volvo said the ban would not put production targets at risk. Volvo spokesman Ingemar Hesslefors said, "the news is not a threat either to the profitability of the S40/V40 (car series) or to the production target of 65,000 cars set up for this year."

"What Nedcar applied for was to introduce a permanent night shift where the workers would continuously work nights. There is still the possibility of introducing a night shift with a rolling schedule," said Hesslefors, adding that Nedcar's management and the works council would begin discussions about the issue: "Now that we've reached the end of the road with one alternative, we'll have to solve things with prevailing legislation."

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel