MP calls for Time to ‘come clean’ on layoffs

VC of Tory party no less

Tory MP Nigel Evans is calling on Time Computers to "come clean" over the number of redundancies at its factory.

The Register has reported the company cut back 130 workers at it's HQ near Burnley in Lancashire last week. But MD Tahir Mohsan will only admit to a figure of between 30 and 40 job losses.

He also said that 60 per cent of people working at Time, weren't directly employed by the company, so any temporary contracts which hadn't been renewed would not be counted as job cuts. However Reg sources within Time say the last remaining temps on the manufacturing side of the business left the company several weeks ago and all the redundancies have been of full time staff.

Time is a private company and reluctant to reveal details about layoffs and store closures. And it's because of this that Nigel Evan is calling for the company to come clean about its business. Evans is MP for the Ribble Valley, where Time and most of its staff are based, as well as vice chairman of the Conservative party.

He has told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph that "there should be no problem with stating the number of people made redundant. The firm should come clean about the job losses so the workforce can get help for those made redundant."

Meanwhile, there is a very interesting Time Computers website that's been set up for current and ex-Time staff. Time is trying to shut the site down, and sadly, the community section contains a lot of racist comments so we've removed our link to it. We hope these messages don't accurately reflect the working environment at the company.

But the site did contain some interesting postings regarding manufacturing proceedures and trading standards. Also this item from Judge Fudge who says he used to work for Time four years ago.

"There was the time that an engineer fixed a customer's PC and sent it back to him with a tuna butty still inside it. The user wondered what the smell was while the butty was slowly warmed up by the CPU heat."

And while we're doing a roundup of Time news we should mention an accolade its just won. The Guardian's consumer section has given the company the Most constructive excuse award.

Apparently Time collected a customer's faulty computer and then lost it. The customer discovered that Time's "finance company could not cancel its credit agreement until it had heard from Time and Time refused to get in touch until it had examined the computer. Which it had lost."

The Guardian says Time featured in half the correspondence it had had regarding computer problems. Well done. ®

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