Toyota wants secret ballot of workers after stoppages

TOYOTA Australia will put a pay offer directly to staff after attacking industrial action it says will cost it $50 million.

TOYOTA Australia will put a pay offer directly to staff after attacking industrial action it says will cost it $50 million.

Toyota says the action will also force 3300 workers employed by its suppliers to be stood down temporarily.

Workers at the company's Altona plant in Melbourne yesterday took their fourth day of strike action, with another stoppage proposed today.

The action also disrupted the company's parts warehouses in Sydney and Melbourne.

Toyota said the stoppages had cost the company about $10m a day in lost vehicle sales revenue, while an estimated 3300 vehicles had not been built.

Toyota Australia executive director manufacturing Chris Harrod said 3300 employees at suppliers to Toyota would be stood down because of the strikes.

Mr Harrod said the company would take action through Fair Work Australia to hold a secret ballot to seek endorsement by the majority of voting employees.

"This will be the first time employees have had the opportunity to decide on the offer we have put on the table," he said.

"Strong feedback from employees is that they want the company to present the (offer) for their consideration and vote."

He said the company started exporting vehicles to the Middle East in 1996 and "since then has never missed a shipment".

"Failure to supply vehicles to our export customers raises concerns about our ability to meet committed customer orders and places a dark cloud over our ability to maintain our position as the preferred distributor to the Middle East," he said.

It is understood Toyota improved its offer of an 11 per cent wage rise over 39 months to 11 per cent over 36 months, at Fair Work Australia on Wednesday, but asked for productivity gains on issues such as absenteeism.

The company was confident the offer would be endorsed by senior union officials, but it was rejected by employee representatives.

Toyota hoped to make up some lost production with single shifts next week instead of a factory shutdown that had been planned for equipment conversion ahead of the launch of a new Camry model in November, which is now behind schedule.