City factory goes to 30 hour week

MPE makes parts for the aircraft industry

A factory in Londonderry has introduced short-time working till the end of the year.

Maydown Precision Engineering employs around 80 workers and makes parts for the aircraft industry.

"Going down from a 37 hour week to a 30 hour week, as opposed to negotiating a redundancy is a lesser of two evils," said Phillip Oakes from UNITE.

The company told the union that the orders books were full for 2010 and they want to retain their workforce.