Jaguar Land Rover workers put on three-day week until Christmas

Announcement comes days after carmaker’s chief executive warned tens of thousands of jobs at risk from no-deal Brexit

Jaguar Land Rover has moved staff at its Castle Bromwich plant to a three-day week due to “headwinds impacting the car industry”.

Jack Dromey, the MP for Birmingham Erdington where the factory is situated, said workers will be on a three-day week until Christmas, because of “a combination of Brexit and the mishandling by ministers of the transition from diesel”.

“Brexit now threatens the jewel in the crown on British manufacturing excellence,” he added.

The carmaker said in statement: “As is standard business practice, Jaguar Land Rover regularly reviews its production schedules to ensure market demand is balanced globally.

“In light of the continuing headwinds impacting the car industry, we are making some temporary adjustments to our production schedules at Castle Bromwich.”

Jaguar’s boss, Ralf Speth, last week warned that tens of thousands of jobs in the UK motor industry are at risk if a no-deal Brexit goes ahead.

He said the current lack of clarity around Brexit means he does not know if his plants will be able to function after 29 March 2019, and added that interruptions to production could cost up to £60m a day.

Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin accused Mr Speth of scaremongering about Brexit.

He told the BBC on Monday: “I’m afraid I think he’s making it up. We’ve had figures made up all the time by the scaremongers in this debate, and I’m afraid nobody believes them.”

Tony Burke, assistant general secretary at Unite, said Jaguar’s decision to move staff to a shorter working week was “the continuing effect of the chaotic mismanagement of the Brexit negotiations by the government which has created uncertainty across the UK’s automotive industry and the manufacturing sector generally”.

He also said the mishandling of “how the UK makes a just transition from diesel and combustion engines to electric vehicles” had damaged the automotive industry.

Mr Burke added: “The situation is not helped when you have arch-Brexiteer MP Sir Bernard Jenkin accusing Ralf Speth of ‘making it up’ when it comes to Brexit and the car industry.

“Jenkins’ comments are highly irresponsible and misinformed when future employment is at stake and are entering into the world of fantasy economics.

“The government’s failure to grasp the needs of the automotive industry were further highlighted when prime minister Theresa May recently unveiled a £106m funding package for the research and development of zero-emission vehicles. This, frankly, is peanuts.”

Jaguar has been calling for more certainty on Brexit for months, and in July said it needed more details on the plans for leaving the EU in order to continue investing in its UK operations. The group also warned that a “bad Brexit” would cost the company more than £1.2bn in profit each year.

The company has already announced plans to cut 1,000 jobs in the UK, which was partly attributed to Brexit uncertainty.

Meanwhile, it is moving production of its Discovery model from the UK to Slovakia early next year, which is likely to affect hundreds of jobs.