Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Plants/Manufacturing, GM
Vauxhall offering workers 9-month sabbatical with 30% pay
Auto sales in the UK are taking a beating just as bad as they are here in the States, as year over year sales in the Queen's country dropped 27% in October and 37% in November. That's bad news for General Motors' Vauxhall brand, especially considering the automaker's current financial situation (or lack thereof). To help keep costs in check during this lean time, Vauxhall has offered a nine-month sabbatical to any worker at its Ellesmere Port facility that wants to hang up his or her work boots until October 2009. In return, Vauxhall is offering up to 30% of that worker's pay during the time off. While that doesn't pay the bills in most cases, money for nothing is tough to beat. The goal of the program is to help Vauxhall and GM keep their structural costs down, though they aren't expecting many takers. The 5,000 workers at Ellesmere are getting a trial run of life without work right now anyway, as the plant is on shut down for an entire month. Thanks for the tip, James!
[Source: BBC]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sea Urchin 10:48AM (12/15/2008)
Why not just send Rick Wagoner on sabbatical, that will not only save 17+ million dollars a year it will force GM to hire someone who is smarter than a monkey to run the company.
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Mobius_1 12:00PM (12/15/2008)
That would be pointless if he's only taking a $1 salary.
Sea Urchin 12:31PM (12/15/2008)
Yeahhhh, that came after he run the company into the ground and Republicans in Senate FORCED him to take $1.
BigMcLargeHuge 10:59AM (12/15/2008)
At 50% pay, I think you'd have plenty of takers.
You actually save more money by offering more money, if you can get more people to take the offer.
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James 11:08AM (12/15/2008)
Take the 30% pay, do some community work, maybe some student teaching for a while.... write a book even.
Hey, that doesn't sound half bad!
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Mobius_1 12:02PM (12/15/2008)
Spend the 30% on survival and further education and prepare for the carpocalypse.
Sounds great!
Polly Prissy Pants 12:19PM (12/15/2008)
Assuming you gross ~60k per year that still means a loss of over $40k next year unless you have some other high paying job lined up, which I'm assuming you wouldn't.
It's a very generous offer from Vauxhall but I just can't see many takers. And who even knows if Vauxhall will be around in 9 months anyway?
Epyx 11:19AM (12/15/2008)
I would take them up on the offer in a second. 30% pay and I could complete a majority of an EMBA while working part time doing anything or even go to school full time. Could be be a great opportunity to stay home with kids for some while still getting paid.. Depending on personal situation this could be very beneficial. Of course, many people live pay check to pay check, at or over their means, so any disruption to pay is disastrous.
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bill 11:56AM (12/15/2008)
30% pay would leave me bankrupt. I do not owe money for anything, but 30% would just cover the cost of basic utilities. Somehow we need to sort out this mess quickly, and to do that we need governments to get the hell out of the private sector. Government boon-doggle programs have caused much of the problem we have today, and now we think these same clowns are going to fix the problem? Good luck with that.
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Jake 12:44PM (12/15/2008)
So, paying people to go away and produce nothing is supposed to save the company money???
I think that I see one of the problems with management here. They think this is a great idea. If you don't have work for them, lay them off. They can go produce something else for someone else.
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