Judge for yourself. Absenteeism is simply defined as an individual's frequent pattern of evasion from an obligation or duty. He was in charge of 32 men on the night shift who were dismissed, disciplined, or who resigned rather than be dismissed. Video, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story, Prince Andrew offered Frogmore Cottage - reports, Ed Sheeran says wife developed tumour in pregnancy, Man survives 31 days in jungle by eating worms, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Bieber cancels remaining Justice world tour dates, Kobe Bryant widow wins $29m settlement from LA, Trump lashes out at Murdoch over vote fraud case. After two days of disciplinary hearings and appeals, BL dismissed 13 Land Rover car workers, who had been caught sleeping on the night shift. Did the media have it in for British Leyland? Not to mention any management off home by 3pm.Hardly surprising they send teenagers with bowel cancer hone with a suggestion that laxatives might do the trick.. This introduction is being written on 30 November 2011, the day we saw 2.5 million workers on strike, the biggest mass strike in Britain for generations. Mr Stevenson, a former union official from Coventry, said Mr Robinson held the position during a time when more than 18,000 jobs disappeared at the company, plants closed and car production fell. When I asked, What happened? I was told Well, theyve finished their stint. In fact, some had finished by one oclock. Whatexactly happened and whenare not easy to decipher. The great BL adventure started promisingly, as Tim Greenhill points out: When I began as an apprentice, the 1100/1300 had 15% of the UK market and BMC overall had 30%: when it joined Leyland, Rover and Jaguar, it had 60%!, In fact, there was never a problem selling Rovers, Jaguars or Triumphs, which didnt have the image problems of the more strategically important family models. As a young man, his first job was selling the newly launched Maestro at a BL dealership in his native Cumbria. Heal opens up on shock mid-season move. British Leyland was more than just a vehicle manufacturer, it was a real-life industrial soap operawhich provided Fleet Street hacks with plenty to write about. Salary: 24,000 - 28,000 per annum including sleep-in allowance. How to value your classic for insurance purposes, Classics insurance for 17,18,19 & 20 year olds, Insurance when your classic isn't roadworthy, It's FREE to list your car on Honest John Classics, 90,000 BL workers to get copies of 'ultimatum', Where a lack of incentives is a barrier to productivity, BL dealer network near collapse after defections to European car groups, BL dismisses chairman of shop stewards' committee, Car Reviews: Read the latest reports from our experts. In this article DAVE LYDDON analyses the forces at work in British Leyland. The men said that, under BLs Measured Day Work system of payment, they were entitled to leave as soon as they had completed their output target for the day. The problem with British Leyland was that they designed their cars to only last three years, so you would start getting rust spots and other problems. "I can sleep sound at night because I never betrayed the workers I was elected to represent," he said. Robinson was not reinstated. Continue with Recommended Cookies. They had begun a policy of non-cooperation following the managements moves to stop workers leaving before the shift was completed. On 10 January 1980 night-shift workers were given a wake-up warning by British Leyland management. Mr Robinson was among those trade unionists soon to lose their grip on power. We ask Birmingham: How can bus services improve in the city? He was sitting opposite Mr Robinson when the union convenor was finally dismissed. VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. The company remained a ward of the state for 13 years. Sir William Lyons, the founder of Jaguar Cars Ltd., died in his sleep this morning at his home near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. It wasnt cheap steel.it was steel that was galvanised on one side only..the idea being that the galvanised side went towards the wet..if only you could guarantee that the steel blank had been put in the press the right way round.. My father and his work colleague both had red S reg 2600 Rovers from new. Thatcher provided British Leyland with 2.9 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) of taxpayer money from 1979 to 1988, Rhys said. Mr Alan Walters, a supervisor, said he had seen another man come from the office carrying a Land-Rover seat capable of being used as a bed. Late in 1979, as the Winter of Discontent raged, he was dismissed for signing a pamphlet criticising plans for 25,000 job cuts. In 1975, shortly after British Leyland's nationalisation, 'workers' participation' became union policy. It was a fantastic shape but, when I parked it, nobody looked at it. Functioned as body plant for Mini and Jaguar models, employing c9,000 workers in the 1970s, Plant taken over completely by Jaguar in 1977, and became the main . Where can you get cheap classic car insurance? (10 seconds outside of a garage in hot sun and the paint would fade and turn into something resembling 1000 grit sandpaper..?). "He is quoted as saying: 'If we make Leyland successful, it will be a political victory. Indeed it almost looks like Corsas, Combos and Vectras had a salmon pink colour option! Tesco is the same, they thought they could dominate the market forever as they pioneered the pile em high, sell em cheap style of supermarket, but were caught out by smaller continental rivals who beat them on price and quality. Ultimately it would become nationalised as British Leyland, often referred to as just BL.In 1986 it was renamed to Rover Group.. History. I was involved in hire and lease sales, he explains, and if someone wanted an XJ6 or a Stag, I just told them that they had to take half a dozen Marinas as well., Greenhill worked at BMC/BL for 13 years, starting as a Technical sales apprentice in 1966 and finishing up as Jaguars marketing manager when the SIII XJ was launched. Red Robbo speaks to striking workers at Longbridge in the 1970s. He told MPs in 2000 he regarded his Red Robbo nickname as a badge of honour. Am I being targeted by an overpayment scam? He was dressed. Manage Settings The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Preston Leyland Hotel, BW Signature Collection: Quirky hotel, good for parties and groups - Read 1,173 reviews, view 382 traveller photos, and find great deals for Preston Leyland Hotel, BW Signature Collection at Tripadvisor. 13 November 1979. It was incredibly the first new model to come out of Longbridge for seven years, but also notable for the utilisation of modern robot technology to produce it. If you want to see the true horrors of 1970s workplaces, have a look at the ship building industry. The result has been the opposition of senior stewards to the toolmakers' strike earlier this year, and the fiascos of the April 20 strike against the Social Contract and the Longbridge strike vote in August 1977. She said: My husband rang to tell me that they have all lost their jobs.. I pointed out that we paid them until 4.30pm. He was accessible to all, cogent and a listener! Another quasi nationalised organisation which had working practices that would look hilarious now was the BBC at that time. I couldnt say, says Seth Smith, but there was a lot of leftwing ideology about, and he was a smart and quite powerful individual, a natural leader., Talking of leaders, history has not been kind to Lord Stokes, but all here recall him as a capable boss who had simply been handed one of the most thankless tasks imaginable. The long-standing custom and practice of allowing men to go home early once they had completed their quota of work was a thorny industrial relations issue. Not just the NHS government in general! acquired by BMC in 1953. The company remained a ward of the state for 13 years. Over the years they have applied pressure to weaken work standards so that, against the already slack standards then applying, they are able to claim they have done their days work and management is powerless to give them more work to complete the shift.. Stories from those at the coalface. And apart from the stupid steering wheel, the Allegro was pretty good, and a lot less labourintensive to produce than the 1100/1300., Was the UK press quicker to stick the boot in when things went wrong than they were in, say, France? The spokesman at the Land Rover plant in Solihull: We do not condone sleeping or dozing in working hours.. Doubling up as it was known-working extra fast so you could bunk off-wasnt confined to BL either. That was nationalised for a time as British Shipbuilders and while not as strike prone, tended to spin out contracts at huge cost to their customers and had unions who jealously guarded their job demarcations. These were blamed by managers for delays to production of 62,000 cars and 113,000 engines, costing the business an estimated 200m. He wrote in his 1983 book, Back from the Brink, that Mr Robinson had "kept Longbridge in ferment and upheaval" for years and "disruption and upheaval" were his "food and drink". As shop steward at British Leyland in Longbridge, Birmingham, he was involved in a series of strikes and walkouts over alleged mismanagement. Job Type: Permanent, Full-Time. This was after he opposed Edwardes' plant closure plans in a pamphlet published on the authority of the combine committee. He will give evidence today. BL described this as potentially dangerous. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Covid origin likely China lab incident - FBI chief, Ukraine war casts shadow over India's G20 ambitions, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, India anti-corruption crusader fighting to clear his name, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Five minutes afterwards Mr Yates came out. The behavior of absenteeism is normally evidenced in work places where some workers may decide to make absenteeism their habit. A quote from Austin Rover Managing Director Harold Musgrove (right) from 1984 underlines that. Read about our approach to external linking. Two of them had clocked 24 or 25 cards. Archive : 1979 from the National Archives, Archive : Sleeping foreman loses dismissal case against BL. Fearing that its collapse would leave a million workers unemployed, the Labour government nationalized it. After a tip-off by the News of the World newspaper, senior managers the previous week carried out a surprise inspection of the night shift in a paint priming shop. Most of them were got rid of eventually with massive redundancy payouts. VideoAt the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Covid origin likely China lab incident - FBI chief, Ukraine war casts shadow over India's G20 ambitions, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, India anti-corruption crusader fighting to clear his name, Exploring the rigging claims in Nigeria's elections, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. 2023 BBC. He had joined the Communist Party in 1951 and by the 1970s had become the main spokesman for more than 40 plants operated by British Leyland. Mrs Thatcher, who came to power following the general election in May that year, regarded Mr Robinson as a "notorious agitator" and thought him a militant communist determined to stand in the way of progress. Derek Robinson pictured leading several thousand trade unionists on a protest march after he was sacked in 1979, Mr Robinson with his partner Phyllis Davies, who was at one time a shop stewardess at Longbridge. He will give evidence today. The sleeping on the night shift story went quiet until the New Year of 1980. The measured day rate replaced piece work at around 1970-1974 IIRC. Following the election of Margaret Thatcher in May 1979, the government and BL sought to implement a recovery plan to save the ailing company. With two successive name changes, British Leyland became BL Limited in 1979. Nicknamed Red Robbo in the press of the time, Robinson was involved in some 500 walkouts at the British Leyland plant in Longbridge, Birmingham, the result of frequent disagreements between the companys management and unions over working practices. The British Leyland era at Longbridge became a byword for wildcat walkouts, union militancy and industrial chaos - and helped clear the path to political power for Margaret Thatcher. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Ideal business/holiday rental Perfect for families, friends and work colleagues (a pet friendly home) The cottage is an attractive Grade ll listed property recently totally refurbished to a high standard maintaining its character and charm, an unusual build with Venetian type windows and a . We ask Birmingham: How can bus services improve in the city absenteeism is defined. In fact, some had finished by one oclock saying: 'If make... 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