Jaguar Land Rover, Britain’s biggest carmaker, is poised to announce the elimination of around 1,000 posts currently filled by workers on short-term contracts as it grapples with slumping U.K. sales of diesel autos and uncertainty around Brexit.
JLR, a unit of India’s Tata Motors Ltd., will formally announce the cuts on April 16 when it reveals production plans for the 2018-2019 fiscal year to workers, according to an emailed statement on April 13.
“In light of the continuing headwinds impacting the car industry, we are making some adjustments to our production schedules and the level of agency staff,” the company said.
Job losses will focus on the Solihull plant near Birmingham, which builds Range Rovers and the Land Rover Discovery and employs a total of 10,000 people.
JLR said in January that the Halewood plant near Liverpool, which produces the Range Rover Evoque and the Discovery Sport, would scale back production in the second quarter amid concerns about Brexit and the waning market for diesel autos.
The company said in the statement that it’s continuing to recruit large numbers of engineers, graduates and apprentices as it invests in new products and technologies, and remains committed to U.K. plants in which it has spent more than 4 billion pounds since 2010.
By Christopher Jasper
