Staff at Jaguar Land Rover’s Castle Bromwich and Solihull factories have been moved to reduced working hours, with the former on a three-day working week until Christmas and the Solihull site is closing for two weeks. The move is reportedly due to the “continuing headwinds” taking their toll on the car industry, and are expected to affect most of the plant’s workers.
SHORT TIME WORKING FOR JAGUAR LAND ROVER STAFF
Castle Bromwich is responsible for assembly of the Jaguar XE, XF and XJ saloons, as well as the F-Type sports car, while the Solihull factory makes the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Velar, as well as the Discovery and Jaguar F-Pace. Jaguar Land Rover said it’s necessary to “regularly review its production schedules to ensure market demand is balanced globally”.
Demand for saloon cars has fallen in 2018, particularly in Europe, where the supermini and SUV markets are proving the most popular with buyers. Labour MP for Erdington, Jack Dromey, took to social media to blame the political climate, saying: “The historic Castle Bromwich Jaguar plant will now go onto a three-day week until Christmas – a combination of Brexit chaos and the mishandling by Ministers of the transition from diesel. Brexit now threatens the jewel in the crown of British manufacturing excellence.”
Jaguar Land Rover also reaffirmed that it’s committed to its UK plants, commenting: “We have invested more than £4 billion since 2010 to future-proof manufacturing technologies to deliver new models”. Tataowned Jaguar Land Rover also has plants in Halewood and employs around 40,000 staff in the UK, with an estimated further 260,000 workers employed in its supply chain.
