Jaguar Land Rover Fires 10 Percent Of Employment At The UK's Halewood Factory

JAKARTA - British automaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced that it will cut about 10 percent of the workforce at its Halewood factory, northern England.

Reported by Reuters, this was done with reasons to increase factory efficiency. A total of 500 workers were affected by this announcement.

"JLR is taking steps to optimize performance, create sustainable growth, and maintain long-term success in our business," said JLR in a statement, Wednesday, January 22.

Because of this, they issued a new policy, which previously had three work shifts, then it was changed to two-plus shift starting April 2020.

The factory produces Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport vehicles. From company records, there was a 6 percent drop in 2019 sales. This was due to the weakening Chinese auto market and lower demand for diesel vehicles in Europe.

However, JLR sales increased in China in recent months in 2019 reaching an increase of 1.3 percent.

The union, Unite Union has warned, that the challenges facing JLR are the same as those experienced by other car manufacturers.

JLR, like most of the auto industry, also faces the challenge of increasing investment in zero and low emission vehicles. Moreover, the rules for this matter are starting to be tightened.

At the same time, the company has also had to deal with falling demand for some conventional powered vehicle models.