Vauxhall hits out at tabloid criticism over Euro 2012
CAR giant Vauxhall has hit out at criticism in the national press for not letting factory workers watch England’s Euro 2012 showdown with Sweden tonight.
Tabloid newspapers yesterday accused Vauxhall bosses of “‘elf and safety madness” after the company, who are also the England team’s official sponsors, were said to have banned staff from watching the game.
But Vauxhall’s director of communications Denis Chick said this afternoon that both the Kimpton Road plant and the Ellesmere Port plant were polled about watching the games.
Mr Chick said that the company had offered to delay the beginning of the evening shift for an hour to allow staff to watch the end of the match with workers making up the extra hour at the shift’s conclusion, but that staff had refused that offer as they didn’t want to work even later into the night.
He added: “To suggest that we should put TV screens up in the plant while people are making cars is crass stupidity and to suggest that we should halt production while people watch TV is about the same.
“I heard one worker here say that we’re paid to make cars not watch TV while another said that he would record the game and that if staff made a pact not to tell each other the score while at work then they could all watch it when they get home.”
Staff at Vauxhall’s Osborne Road headquarters were treated to a visit by Roy Hodgson’s England squad before they departed for the tournament in Poland and the Ukraine last week.
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Saturday 25 May 2013
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