13.11.2008

JCB makes further cuts

JCB has announced that it is reducing production at its UK plants by 34 per cent and maintaining the reduced output levels into the first quarter of 2009. The reductions will require further redundancies.

Last month JCB reduced the number it was laying off from 510 to 178 after union members voted in favour of a shorter working week. The company has now announced a further 398 layoffs, including 297 shop-floor jobs and 101 office positions due, it says, to the extreme deterioration in business levels and confidence around the world leading to a significant reduction in order intake, particularly from previously buoyant markets including Russia and Central and Eastern Europe.

JCB says that “it has chosen to retain 336 shop-floor employees who would otherwise have been at risk, as a result of the reduced production levels during the first quarter of 2009. This decision has been made in anticipation of an upturn in activity during the second quarter and reciprocates the support shown by employees in voting for a 34 hour week.”

Vertikal Comment

This is obviously dire news, but it is quite confusing too with talk of lay-offs and jobs saved. In both rounds of job cutting the company has quoted a headline number of jobs to be cut, but then says it is saving an almost equal number that were at risk.

In summary it says that it will have laid off 668 employees with this latest announcement, but that 1,240 jobs had been at risk, so it has managed to save 572 jobs thanks to employees accepting shorter hours.