21 workers lose jobs at Huntington-based Portakabin (From York Press)

21 workers lose jobs at Huntington-based Portakabin

8:50am Friday 8th January 2010 in

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THE recession has claimed the jobs of 21 workers at one of York’s key employers as they face up to starting the new year looking for fresh work.

Huntington-based Portakabin has confirmed it has shed the positions at its headquarters in the city after difficult trading conditions forced it to swing the axe for the second time in less than a year.

The family-owned business, which constructs portable buildings, has made 33 office and administration staff across its operation redundant – including 21 in York – following a consultation period announced last autumn.

Originally, 75 jobs hung in the balance when Portakabin said it needed to reassess its staffing levels because of a “significant downturn” in the market within which it operates.

But this figure fell after 225 workers on the firm’s shop floor chose to adopt a short-time working programme – potentially wiping off more than £100 a week from each of their weekly pay packets – which will involve them working one less day each week.

The move safeguarded the jobs of 40 employees and won praise from the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, but Portakabin – which is part of the York-based Shepherd Group, employing about 600 people in the city and 1,300 across the UK and Europe – has now confirmed it has had to make redundancies in other areas of its business.

“It is regrettable that, even after every effort had been made, it was necessary to make 33 posts redundant, of which 21 are from the York area,” said a company spokesman.

The latest jobs blow came after Portakabin made 80 redundancies earlier last year, shortly after its workforce downed tools for an early and enforced Christmas holiday to combat the problems caused by the credit crunch.