Managers to meet with hundreds of staff facing redundancy at Mitsubishi Electric factory in Livingston

A meeting will be held between staff and management at the Mitsubishi Electric factory in West Lothian on Thursday morning after it was announced more than 400 workers could lose their jobs.

The plant in Livingston is the largest heat pump manufacturer in the UK and has been manufacturing air conditioning units for more than 30 years.

Staff were taken into the canteen on Tuesday where they were told that a redundancy consultation for 436 workers had begun, employees told STV News.

The firm, which has factories in the US, Mexico and Italy, employs over 1,600 people in Livingston, but are looking to cut the workforce down to around 1,200 workers within the next 45 days.

Officials said it was “an extremely difficult decision”.

Both the Scottish and UK governments have said they will seek to support the workforce.

Angela Constance, SNP MSP for Almond Valley and Scotland’s justice secretary, told STV News: I will be reaching out with some urgency to governments at all levels, whether that’s the local authority, whether it’s the Scottish Government and our agencies, but also to the UK Government, because I do think we owe it to the workforce to ensure that no stone is left unturned.”

Labour’s Gregor Poynton, MP for Livingston, raised the redundancies in Parliament on Wednesday.

“Speaking to Ian Murray, the secretary of state for Scotland, who I’ve just spoken to in the Commons, and he’s agreed to meet with the workforce to firstly talk to them about how we can support them and secondly to meet with the management as well to see what if anything, the UK Government can do to support their order book,” he said.

Ian Murray, Scotland secretary, said: “I’m really sorry to hear of the difficulties faced by Mitsubishi Electric’s workforce and the uncertainty faced by those workers during this difficult time.

“I will of course commit, as a matter of priority, to meeting with the company and workforce in the coming weeks.”

‘Absolute shock’

“They pulled us in to the canteen and gave us a briefing on the progress into the companies targets, about how they not as high as they should be”, an employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told STV News.

“And that they can’t see it picking up any time soon.

“They then told us that they were unfortunately looking to make redundancies, and were asking for 436 volunteers.

“There was just absolute shock in the room.

“Especially considering they had promised this wouldn’t happen only six months earlier.

“I’ve worked there over ten years, but there is entire families who work there, from grandparents to grandkids.

“As a company they are always banging on about mental health and wellbeing, about how important it is. But this is clearly not the case.”

Mitsubishi Electric and Unite the Union has been contacted for comment.

Mitsubishi Electric will ‘try to avoid any compulsory redundancies’

In a letter entitled “notification of potential redundancies”, seen by STV News, the company wrote to employees: “I am writing to inform you of potential redundancies for the employees of Mitsubishi Electric Air Conditioning Systems Europe Ltd (M-ACE).

“Unfortunately, the organisation has recently experienced a deterioration in demand due to market conditions in Mainland Europe.

“As a result, the organisation must align the headcount required to match the expected volumes over 2024-25.

“In the current circumstances the proposed course of action would be to make redundancies in the areas where we have identified that there is insufficient work for the current number of employees. As laid down by Section 188 of the Trade Union & Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and therefore, this letter is sent to you to form the beginning of the consultation process

“In an attempt to avoid any redundancy dismissals, we would like to enter into meaningful discussions with you as a representative of M-ACE Consultative Committee. If we are unable to agree any alternative course of action with you, we would still try to avoid any compulsory redundancies by seeking volunteers across all appropriate sections of the workforce.”