Hundreds of jobs to be axed at Halewood JLR car plant

Hundreds of jobs are to be axed at Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood plant on Merseyside.

The car maker said it is introducing a tranformation programme involving switching from three shifts to two.

This will mean about 10% of the plant’s workforce will be made redundant. The car maker employs around 4,000 staff with a further 500 agency workers on site.

A JLR spokeswoman said: “Through its ongoing transformation programme, Jaguar Land Rover 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 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.

“This change in shift pattern affects around 10% of Halewood’s workforce. Jaguar Land Rover Halewood employees have the opportunity to leave through an enhanced voluntary redundancy programme.”

Unite, the UK and Ireland’s largest union, has described the announcement as a “fresh blow to the car industry”.

The job losses comprise a mixture of permanent employees and agency staff. Unite has negotiated that the loss of the permanent employees will be through an enhanced voluntary redundancy scheme.

Unite national officer Des Quinn said: “This is a further blow to the UK car industry in general and to our members at Halewood in particular.

“Unite will be ensuring that the commitment to limit job losses to voluntary redundancies is fully honoured.

“The challenges being faced at JLR are also being experienced by other UK car factories.

“The UK’s car industry has plummeted from being the jewel in the crown of the UK’s manufacturing sector in a few short years, directly as a result of Government inaction.

“Until the Government ensures that there is long-term frictionless trade and no tariffs with the European Union, along with meaningful investment in the infrastructure to ensure the success of electric vehicles, the UK’s car industry will continue to experience severe challenges.”