Jaguar Land Rover will move to a three-day working week at its Castle Bromwich factory, the Telegraph has reported.
This decision has been made amid its decreasing sales and Brexit fears. Indeed, the move to a three-day week is set to last until Christmas.
The reduction of worker hours will impact 2,000 staff working at the factory. By reducing their hours, Jaguar aims to preserve the jobs of its employees rather than scrapping roles completely.
The company sad it will be making “temporary adjustments to our production schedules” at the factory. Additionally, the company added that it was normal to “regularly review its production schedules to ensure market demand is balanced globally”.
Several have blamed Brexit uncertainty for the move, the BBC reports.
Notably, Assistant general secretary of the Unite union, Tony Burke, said:
“This is the continuing effect of the chaotic mismanagement of the Brexit negotiations by the government”
Moreover, Theresa May’s handling of the situation “has created uncertainty across the UK’s automotive industry and the manufacturing sector generally”.
Jaguar Land Rover directly employs 40,000 in addition to the 260,000 working in its supply chain. In 2017, the company produced over 600,000 cars. Mainland Europe purchased a fifth of these.