TOMORROW signals decision time for hundreds of production associates made redundant by Honda in the past two months, with 15 employers at a jobs fair in Stanton Fitzwarren.

Since Honda of the UK Manufacturing (HUM) announced it would be cutting 500 permanent and temporary jobs on March 25, consultations have been held and a voluntary redundancy window opened.

On May 12, it was announced 99 people would be forced out of the door along with compulsory redundancies, bringing the final number of permanent staff leaving up to 300.

Jill Annal, project manager of the task force which has organised the fair, does not anticipate all of those leaving HUM will attend tomorrow, though she has hopes of job offers before workers depart Stanton House Hotel for the day.

“It really does rely on the employers. There will be people who make up their minds on the spot, based on the people they meet there,” she said.

“Some conversations will be based around them starting on Monday, but recruitment doesn’t always quite work like that for some companies.

“Generally CVs will be taken for consideration alongside the general melee of people applying for their vacancies, but it’s not unusual for employers to make snap decisions.That will be the best possible result.”

Post Office pulled out of tomorrow’s event this week, leaving 15 registered companies for the fair.

Network Rail brings 11 jobs to the fair, with Millbank (Aston Martin) offering 10 jobs on the day, though recruitment service, C&D Group, has pledged to offer 50 jobs based around the motor industry.

As well as the Honda staff invited to attend, there will be an extra 40 names on the list of attendees, all from the supply chains at South Marston Distribution Centre (SDC) and TS Tech.

People will start rolling in at 10am tomorrow, with a timetable set to run until 2.30pm.

Last year, following similar redundancy news at HUM, the jobs fair organised by the task force went on until 5pm, but Mrs Annal said the alliance had made this event shorter.

“This Friday will be much smaller than last year because the actual footfall is much smaller,” she said. “Because there are a smaller number of people we have scaled down the fair.

“The major thing we learned was not to underestimate the level of support that candidates need on the day. In the feedback surveys we did with people as they left last year we found many of them weren’t able to find jobs because they didn’t have the confidence to speak with the right people.

“We have made sure there are more people to do some hand holding this time and make sure the candidates are guided to the right people and make the right introductions.”