Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds will meet the bosses of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and the Unite union to discuss the impact of thousands of expected job cuts at the car maker. JLR confirmed to the BBC it is opening a voluntary redundancy programme, a year on from a cyber attack which brought production to a halt for more than a month. The company did not confirm the numbers but the Times reported as many as 4,000 jobs may be lost due to the impact of tariffs and a drop in sales.
Reynolds told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg the meeting early next week will focus on ways to "mitigate any job losses" but ruled out a bailout for the company. Asked about the cuts, which are believed to impact mainly white collar workers, Reynolds said: "A company the size of JLR, which is a huge British success story, at various times in its business cycle, the number of, directly, people it employs will change. "If this is about making sure over time that the workforce is right to make the business as competitive as possible, that's the conversation we need to have." He said there would be no support "if it's to bail people out", but opened the door to a "long-term investment in the future" of the company.
The cuts come as Chancellor John Healey is preparing to deliver a speech in the Midlands on Monday promising to boost economic growth by changing how the government values investment in infrastructure such as transport and housing. JLR is based in Coventry, in the West Midlands. JLR hack is costliest cyber attack in UK history, say analysts UK-US trade deal will save jobs, says JLR JLR investment a 'vote of confidence' for region JLR has not confirmed the scale of the job cuts, but said they would "simplify" the business and "improve efficiency and build greater resilience".
"Today, we informed our colleagues, and trade union partners that JLR is opening a voluntary redundancy programme offering salaried and management team members the opportunity to leave the business," a spokesperson said. "We will share further information with our colleagues first." It did not rule out the prospect of some compulsory redundancies as part of the plans. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the union had been warning about a "perfect storm" hanging over the automotive industry for some time.
"Death by a thousand cuts has been going on under the nose of successive governments," she said. She added there had been "intensive" discussions over the weekend about mitigating jobs losses. Reynolds was asked about the impact on the car industry of the UK's electric vehicle sales target, which means manufacturers must ensure a percentage of the cars they sell each year are zero emissions, with the target rising each year to reach 80% by 2030.
He said one of the first things he had done as business secretary was give the industry more flexibility to work towards that and said there was a further consultation open on it. "It's not where it needs to be and that's why we're willing to change the regulation to work with where consumer demand is and the industry," he added. He said he had also spoken with West Midlands mayor Richard Parker about supporting the business and its staff.
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