Land Rover to axe night shift

Sep 26 2008 by William Oliphant, Birmingham Mail

LAND Rover is axeing the night shift at its Solihull factory affecting nearly 1,000 workers, it was revealed today.

Company spokesman Mark Foster confirmed the shift was being cut and would not be reintroduced before the end of the year at the earliest.

The night shift staff will, however, continue doing day shift work.

But Mr Foster said he could not rule out redundancies eventually.

“No manufacturer at any time, let alone the period we’re going through at the moment, can give a guarantee on job numbers,” he added.

The decision will affect employees at the company’s T5 department.

One worker said: “We get extra pay for working night shifts, so we are going to be about £120 a week down on our pay packets. “All I can say is that in all the years I’ve worked at the company I’ve never seen it this bad.”

The night shift will be axed from November 3 and follows a decision by the firm to reduce production to four days a week on some lines and increase the workers’ summer breaks to prevent stockpiling of vehicles.

The worker, who did not want to be named, added: “The break rooms are full, there’s too many people here for the work that needs to be done. There’s literally hundreds of workers walking around with nothing to do,” he said.

“People are very worried here. There’s a lot of concern about jobs. We feel like we’re being kept in the dark. In the current economic climate people need the company and the union to lay their cards on the table.”