It has been widely reported that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will cut 500 jobs at its Halewood plant on Merseyside, with employees told that the losses are a result of a change in the shift patterns that will come into effect from
April.

The Unite union has said that the losses will affect both permanent employees and agency staff.

Jaguar has about 4,000 permanent employees at Halewood and told staff that the losses would affect about 10% of its total workforce when it moves from three shifts a day to two (www.jaguarlandrover.com).

Unite said it understood the redundancies were a result of on-going economic uncertainty, with slower than forecast rates of growth for the Evoque and Discovery Sport models produced at the factory.

Unite’s national officer, Des Quinn, said: “This is a further blow to the UK car industry and to our members at Halewood, and Unite will be ensuring that the commitment to limit job losses to voluntary redundancies is fully honoured.

Until the Government ensures that there is long-term frictionless trade and no tariffs with the European Union, the UK’s car industry will continue to experience severe challenges.”

In a statement JLR is taking action to optimise performance, enable sustainable growth and safeguard the long-term success of our business.

“Central to the Halewood manufacturing strategy, we are moving from a three-shift to a ‘two-plus’ shift pattern from April 2020.

“This will deliver significant operating efficiencies at the plant, while enabling us to meet the growing customer demand for our new Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport.”