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'When redundancy hit our family'

By Paul Burnell BBC News

On a wet Monday last month, 350 workers from the iconic firm of Wedgwood in North Staffordshire lost their jobs.

Mark and Debra Evans have found job hunting hard

Calling the area the Potteries suddenly became a sick joke for workers as whole families were devastated.

Until Stoke-on-Trent's black Monday, Mark Evans was a Wedgwood polisher who had been with the company for 11 years.

His wife Debra was a china selector and their 21-year-old son worked in the multi-print shop.

All three, who live in the old pottery town of Hanley, were made redundant. Mark and Debra had accepted voluntary redundancy a few weeks earlier and were hoping for a few more weeks' work, but the company's collapse stopped this and meant they lost the financial packages they were promised

"People that had been there 20 to 30 years were just finished there and then," Debra told BBC Radio 4's Seven Days.

"It's like something on the bottom of your shoe that's been scraped off. That's how I think a lot of people feel."

Find Out More Listen to Seven Days, Radio 4 Thursday 26 February 2009 2000 GMT. Or catch up at Radio 4's Listen Again site

Mark explained how staff heard they had lost their jobs.

"They made us stand in a line in the rain. I had to go into the canteen," he said.

"The administrator stood up and said 'unfortunately all in this room are being made redundant effective from now', so it was a big shock."

The shock was brought home when Mark and Debra next visited the factory to collect belongings such as a toaster and kettle and to register for statutory redundancy pay.

Escorted by security staff on and off the premises, there was hardly chance to say goodbye to friends and colleagues.

Minimum wage

Ever since then they have been job hunting

In the first two days Mark visited 10 employment agencies.

"You go into these places, you ask 'have you got any manufacturing jobs or industrial' and it is 'No, no, come back in a week's time we might have something then'," he said.

"There is office work, but when you've never done it and you don't know how to use a computer it's no good. There is a lot of cleaning jobs, but they only want you for 10 hours a week.

Debra registered immediately with two agencies, "working in hospitals, care homes, that sort of things".

"It's just national minimum wage, but something is better than nothing," she said, as they faced the imminent prospect of no money coming into the house.

There's a hell of a lot of people redundant, Wedgwood, JCB, Woolworth's. We're all in the same situation. There's nothing really out there." Debra Evans

"You've got to live from day to day," said Debra.

Added Mark: "I think it's going to be a long hard slog.

Within days Debra got some temping work as a cleaner at the market.

Mark got a job valeting cars at night in a showroom in Crewe, but had to give it up.

"It was just too far to travel, it was 30 miles there and back," said Debra. "It's only temporary, it was pointless."

Job hunt

At that time, life was a round of job centres and agencies for the family.

"Whatever brings the money in, we've got to take it," said Debra.

"In the meantime it's sign on and hope that the people we pay our mortgage to, and others we owe money to, have patience," added Mark.

But Debra was not optimistic.

"There's a hell of a lot of people redundant. Wedgwood, JCB, Woolworth's, we're all in the same situation. There's nothing really out there."

The family members are all still looking for full time work.