More job cuts at Jaguar

JAGUAR Land Rover could cut another 400 jobs across its UK operations, taking the total as high as 600.

In mid-October, it asked for around 200 voluntary redundancies across its UK sites, including Halewood, Merseyside, and has now extended the scheme because it was oversubscribed.

Originally hourly paid manufacturing staff were offered voluntary redundancy but this has been extended to salaried employees in the manufacturing division and hourly-paid staff in other areas. The company said it had not set quotas for each plant.

Employees who take redundancy will receive a nine month lump sum based on their current salary and any workers over 60 will be entitled to their full pension allowance.

The company, owned by India’s Tata Motors, has also announced that it will hold another non-production week, starting on December 1. Halewood closed for a week at the end of October to try and ease over-capacity.

Around 2,000 of the company’s16,000 strong workforce are employed at Halewood, where it produces Land Rover’s Freelander and Jaguar’s X-type saloon.