850 agency workers lose jobs at Jaguar

The car industry was rocked by more grim news today when Jaguar Land Rover said hundreds of agency workers will lose their jobs at major factories.

The Indian-owned motor giant said around 850 IT and engineering staff at plants in Castle Bromwich, Solihull, Whitley, and Gaydon, all in the West Midlands of England, will be laid off by the end of the year.

The move will halve the firm’s normal 1,700-strong complement of agency staff and is the latest example of car firms having to cut costs and reduce production as the UK heads for a recession.

A company statement said: “Global car market conditions remain severe. We have to take responsible and rapid action to ensure our business is aligned and right-sized for the challenging environment we face.

“Already we have taken a series of actions for this purpose, which have impacted on our full-time and temporary employees in our manufacturing plants and, while these are difficult decisions, we must turn our attention to agency employees in our staff areas as well.

“It is essential we protect the position of our own full-time employees as far as possible and ensure the future strength of our business.”

Jaguar Land Rover is already looking for 600 voluntary job losses as part of a redundancy programme, while production cutbacks have also been implemented.

The firm, based at Gaydon in Warwickshire, was bought from Ford by Indian motor giant Tata in March for £1.15bn (€1.37bn).

It employs about 16,000 staff at plants in the West Midlands and at Halewood, Merseyside.