JLR Deal To Save Jobs
by Orlandy - February 25th, 2009.Filed under: Auto Industry.
Jaguar Land Rover workers are to vote on proposals to cut their hours and freeze their pay in exchange for the guaranteed jobs for two years.
Pay, along with bonuses, will be frozen until October 2010, under proposals hammered out between the unions and Jaguar Land Rover bosses. Flexible working arrangements will also have to be decided across the West Midlands plants as part of the UK jobs safeguard.
Some workers voted on Monday whilst others vote today with the result due to be announced on Thursday.
“There is no way our members will not agree to this deal,” GMB’s Bert Hill said.
“It saves jobs. It shows confidence in the new models at Jaguar Land Rover and helps the company ride the storm for a couple of years.”
JLR employs about 15,000 people in the UK and has been forced to make 450 job cuts recently and held production suspensions, in line with other manufacturers.
Last month the Government announced a package of measures aimed at helping out the industry and stopping skilled workers being consigned to the dole queue.
They included guarantees to unlock loans of up to £1.3bn from the European Investment Bank as well as a £1bn in UK government loans to fund investment in greener vehicles.