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8
Summary of Session 5
Study Circle GBR1 (Les Ford)
Summary of Session 5
In session 4 we decided to gather information about Herberts:
About the company:
- 1 Herberts was founded in 1866 by Otto Louis Herberts, in 1972 Hoechst AG purchased 51 % of the company from the Herberts family, in 1976
Hoechst acquired the remaining shares.
- 2 The company's head office is in Wuppetal in Germany.
- 4 Herberts is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hoechst AG.
- 6 It has 57 plants operating in Europe,Australia,China,Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico,Norway, Singapore,Taiwan, Turkey,United Arab Emirates
and the USA, in a press release published in March 1997 the company announced joints ventures with Chinese Powder Coating companies in a rapidly
expanding Asian market. More information on http://www.herberts.de/herberts.com/html/info/dialog.html
- 7 1996 Total sales DM 2.34.
- 9 Rita Higgs Deputy Head of Research T&G at rhiggs@tgwu.org.uk
Issues for Trade Unionists:
- 1 Yes, wages and conditions are in top quartile of paint manufacturing, eg 37.5 hours per week, 25 days paid holidays + statutory days (8)
- 2 Yes, from 1992 the company embarked on a series on "Lean Production" policies, the outcome is that 1 in 12 jobs disappeared, either by redundancies
or non-replacement of retirements. There have also been some plant closures, 1 in Germany(Leipzig) and I in Italy. All these decisions have been taken to
achieve the companies objective of increasing the return on capital, currently 6% with the objective of achieving 10%
- 3 Yes, the company has embarked on a Total Quality Management strategy with Team Working and National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) training as
part of the programme.
- 4 Yes, (Because of the Environment Protection Act) which comes into force in 1999.
- 5 Positive, the company recognizes the union for negotiation and consultation, and responded to the T&G's initiative to establish a European Works
Council.
- 6 Moving towards a global organisation eg creating dedicated products (World division) by transferring the technology to achieve this aim.
- 7 Smaller sights have become more vulnerable which in itself leads to more job insecurity.
- 8 Our contacts are conducted directly through the European Works Council, and our experience is that our colleagues are hungry for such contacts.
Issues for the Community:
- 2 Circa 230 employed locally, within 3 miles of the plant. there are in total 350 directly employed by the company many of these travelling some distance
20-25 miles.
- 3 Yes, Jobs and prosperity to the local economy.
- 6 As far as we know, positively
Concerning our rights to information
We have an organisation which is called "The Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service" (ACAS) which is quasi legal. There is an ACAS Code of Practice
on the disclosure of information, which is vague and non-specific. We obtain information about companies via their requirement to lodge their annual reports with
"Companies House" which is a statutory obligation.
Links Conserning this summary
Study Circles other summaries
[Session 1]/ [Session 2]/ [Session 3]/ [Session 4]
[Session 5]/ [Session 6]/ [Session 7]/ [Session 8]
[Evaluation]
Summaries of session 5
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