Hemswell: 44 jobs have been put at risk of redundancy as recycling company restructures

A recycling company in Hemswell are in the midst of a restructure which has put 44 job roles at risk of redundancy.
Eco Plastics, HemswellEco Plastics, Hemswell
Eco Plastics, Hemswell

Eco Plastics Recycling in Hemswell Business Park in Hemswell announced to its staff in February they would be restructuring the business including shift changes and loss of job roles.

A consultation period began and roles which were at risk were identified.

The consultation has now come to an end and staff will be made aware of any redundancies towards the end of this month.

The roles which are to be made redundant include Sort Line Operators, Lab Technicians, Production Managers and Wash/extrusion operators. There is a total of 44 roles to be lost in the restructuring.

Gainsborough MP, Sir Edward Leigh, said: “Every redundancy is a huge disappointment, and the best guarantee of getting people back into employment is a prosperous economy.”

“Under this Government over two million private-sector jobs have been created, so I hope we can get those who’ve lost their jobs at Hemswell back into work soon.”

The consultation period ended on Monday 2nd March so the company will now pool the scoring matrix and staff will be provisionally selected for redundancy.

The week commencing Monday 9th March staff who have been provisionally selected or not selected will be informed and individual one to one consultation meetings will start.

The consultations will continue until Monday 23rd March when appeals will be scheduled, redundancies confirmed in writing and affected staff will be put on garden leave.

Then on Friday 3rd April the restructuring process will ends and will be confirmed to all staff.

The departments which will be affected by the staffing changes will be the Sort Plant, Wash and Extrusion, Logistics, Quality Team, Technical Team, Engineering Support Team, Procurement and Finance.

Departments which will remain unchanged are Engineering, Facilities Team, Weigh Bridge and Material Assessors.

ECO Plastics has had investment of £15m at the Hemswell plant, which was reopened in 2010 after being hit by a major fire the previous year, from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which provided a £1.15m loan, and Coca Cola Enterprises (CCE).

The Hemswell facility is capable of sorting around 150,000 tonnes of waste plastic bottles per year, which represents around 35 per cent of the total bottle recycling capacity in the UK each year.

The business was placed into pre-pack administration at the end of last year, allowing the business to continue at the firm while a plan and contract was drawn up for its sale, but this meant creditors did not have the option of presenting a winding-up petition if they had chosen to do so.

Investor Aurelius then acquired ECO Plastics’ staff, business and assets for £3.56m after the pre-pack arrangement and moved them under the control of a new firm it has set up by the name Plastics ECO.

Administrators’ documents revealed that ECO Plastics made a loss of nearly £12.5m in the two years leading up to the sale of its business to Aurelius.