Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Friday announced “a landmark pay and conditions settlement” with unions that has secured the future of the Castle Bromwich Jaguar and Solihull Land Rover plants, one which had been likely to have been closed in 2014.
JLR said the deal with its workforce was agreed “following an intensive study to determine the future… strategy for both brands and a period of negotiation with trade unions representing its workforce.”
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The agreement, which unions representing the workforce will unanimously recommend to their members, sees JLR “revising” its plans to consolidate manufacturing operations.
If they approve the agreement, workers will get a pay rise of 5% next month with a further rise of at least 3% next November. New recruits for the manufacturing plants will come in on lower rates of pay and receive lower shift premiums, increasing flexibility. Existing employees are unaffected. There will also be an extension of performance related pay for salaried employees.
“Subject to employees endorsing this deal over the next few weeks, Jaguar Land Rover will now retain three plants in the UK – at Castle Bromwich, Solihull [both near Birmingham] and Halewood [Liverpool] – building Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles,” the automaker said.
“This will lead to the creation of thousands of new jobs in Britain over the next decade as Jaguar Land Rover invests billions of pounds in the UK and significantly increases both the number of models in its range as well as overall global volumes.”
JLR recently launched its new ‘entry level’ Range Rover Evoque line which goes on sale next year. It will be made alongside the Freelander at Halewood; other Land and Range Rovers are all made at Solihull. Engines come either from a PSA/Ford joint venture at Dagenham or a Ford engine plant at Bridgend, Wales.
“This is a triumph for all concerned,” said JLR CEO Ralf Speth. “We have ambitious plans for growth and the success of our products around the world and this agreement will allow us to accelerate and realise those plans.
“The agreement is a great deal for our workers and the company and we can now really get on with working together to achieve an even more exciting future for the JLR brands. We have already started by beginning to hire 1,500 new employees to support the launch of the new Evoque at our award-winning Halewood factory in Liverpool.
“Our parent company Tata supported us through the recession and our employees also made sacrifices but now we are seeing a great turnaround in the business and everyone involved – our employees; our customers and our Tata shareholders – will benefit from this agreement. This is truly the beginning of a new era for Jaguar Land Rover.”
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