Jaguar Land Rover has furloughed some 20,000 of its employees – roughly half its global workforce.
The British car maker normally has around 40,000 staff worldwide, with its main operations in the UK at Halewood, Gaydon, Whitley and Castle Bromwich, but it has taken the swingeing action in response to the coronavirus pandemic, after halting production in March.
In addition, its executive team will be taking pay cuts for the next three months, reports the BBC, with chief executive Sir Ralf Speth’s salary dropping by 30 per cent, the management board’s going down by 20 per cent and the executive leadership team foregoing 10 per cent.
Some 20,000 employees whose roles ‘are not critical during this temporary period of disruption’ have been furloughed, said JLR, but their salaries have been fully protected for April.
The company also revealed that it sold 508,659 cars in the past 12 months – a year-on-year drop of 12.1 per cent. The three months from January to March saw an even bigger decrease, with year-on-year sales down by 30.9 per cent to 108,869.
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