29.01.2021

JCB staffs up

JCB is to convert 300 agency staff, including welders, fabricators and CNC machinists into full time permanent employees from March onwards. It also plans to recruit around 400 further shopfloor workers on an agency basis for its UK manufacturing facility as demand begins to return to pre Covid-19 levels.

The company says the market has ‘rebounded sharply’ since the pandemic halted production at its facilities last spring, and that the additional employees will help the company ‘gear up for a surge in production’ from mainland Europe and North America. It also follows the early retirement of up to 400 older employees in September, according to the GMB union, which has worked with the company to maintain as many permanent staff as possible during the pandemic.
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JCB to recruit more staff in UK to cope with an expected surge in demand

JCB chief operating officer Mark Turner, said: “In March 2020 our orders dramatically disappeared overnight when the Covid-19 pandemic took hold and while we were able to protect our shop floor workforce, regrettably many staff positions were impacted. It took more than six months for the business to recover to production levels we last saw in March 2020. This year has started strongly and our forecasts predict a continued solid recovery, with strong demand from mainland Europe and North America. This means we are now in a position to recruit many more shop floor colleagues and offer permanent JCB contracts to a large number of existing agency employees. After a tumultuous 12 months, this really is good news.”