Wrexham AM’s bid to help JCB workers

WREXHAM Assembly Member Lesley Griffiths hopes a new scheme will help workers facing redundancy at the JCB Transmissions factory in the town.

The AM is in talks with JCB, the GMB trade union and the Welsh Assembly to see if the recently announced ProAct scheme can be used to help the 58 workers facing redundancy at the Wrexham plant, which makes gearboxes for diggers and earth moving equipment.

The ProAct pilot scheme is a new initiative by the Welsh Assembly to support and provide training for employees put on short-time working, before redundancies are considered.

Funding for ProAct would cover training as well as a wage subsidy for workers being trained.

Mrs Griffiths said: “From JCB’s perspective, the advent of ProAct is particularly timely. This pilot scheme will only apply to the automotive sector, until the scheme is widened out to other industry sectors in April.

“I met with the GMB union to discuss the ongoing situation at JCB and how I believe ProAct could help workers at the plant. Hopefully, over the course of the next few days, the company and Welsh Assembly Government will discuss my proposal.”