Land Rover Going To 4-Day Work Week

According to the Solihull Times,  production at the Land Rover plant in Solihull has been cut to four days a week.

The production cut-back comes after the company announced a "softening" of sales in the UK and United States. Land Rover Jaguar (LRJ) exports 78 per cent of its production.

Staff,  which includes more than 6,000 people at the Lode Lane plant, were told to report for work as usual last Friday and then again before the big two-and-a-half week company vacation shut-down.  No 4x4s were being produced except for the Defender.

Don Hume, director of corporate affairs at Land Rover, said: "Quite simply we're talking about two day shifts. They are non-production days.  Everybody will be in the plant but they will be working on other things like training and house keeping and so forth.

"What we are doing is matching production to overall demand to avoid stockpiling.  It's no surprise that with the economic situation around the world we are experiencing difficulties in some markets more than others."

Mr Hume added that there were currently no plans to lay workers off and that the Jaguar side of the business would not be affected.

News of the cutback comes weeks after the firm announced a drive to hire 600 new staff after the £1.15 billion takeover by Tata Motors of India.  However, those jobs are rumored to be on the engineering side, rather than production.