Re-Employment For 80 Of 120 Dismissed Men

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
COVENTRY, MARCH 15

An offer of re-employment for 80 of the 120 men summarily dismissed by Mulliners Ltd., at Coventry, on Monday was today accepted by the unions concerned. Standard Triumph International Ltd., the parent company, who ordered Monday's dismissals, offered to absorb the men on the production of Triumph Herald cars at their Canley factory.

The offer came at a time when the 11,000 men at Canley had refused to handle Vanguard car bodies on which the dismissed men had been employed and were threatening a complete ban on overtime on all models. The unions are to take up the question of assurances that this kind of dismissal will not happen again with the local Engineering Employers' Association which has acted on Standard's behalf. The unions are also seeking a meeting with the managing director of Standard's to press their claim that the remaining 40 men should be kept on the company payroll until alternative employment can be found for them.

The Mulliners factory at Coventry was taken over by Standard's last October. The entire labour force of 120 men was dismissed at an hour's notice on Monday and given a week's wages in lieu of notice. It is understood the Standard management have found that the use of the plant has become uneconomic.