Aggrieved staff at Jaguar Land Rover plants have lifted the lid on “anger” and “bitterness” among colleagues, with one whistle-blower revealing how “most people are waiting for the axe to swing”.
Employees returned to work a fortnight ago following two-week shutdown period after JLR chiefs announced a freeze in vehicle production.
It came after the luxury UK car giant announced sales had fallen by 13.2 per cent to 129,887 vehicles for the three months to September 30.
The company also reported revenues of £5.6billon and a pre-tax loss of £90million for the same period.
Following a raft of financial woes, one of its biggest suppliers Unipart announced a plan IF JLR was to announce an early Christmas shutdown amid alleged “strong rumours”.
However, two weeks after returning to work, a number of workers from inside Castle Bromwich, Tyre Fort and Solihull have explained what the atmosphere has been like among staff following months of uncertainty .
Watch: Jaguar Land Rover CEO on car manufacturing in the UK after Brexit
An agency worker based at Tyre Fort, Birmingham, is expecting things to get worse, hence the reason he’s looking for jobs elsewhere.
He said: “Workers at Tyre Fort think that there is some sort of shutdown still going ahead. There is no motivation and moral is low.
“Some people have been told off the record that things will get worse.
“If we have another shutdown, agency workers are unsure if we will be paid again. The job hunt is still going strong for me with over 70 jobs applied for.”
‘False impression of life in a car factory’
Elsewhere, an anonymous JLR-contracted employee at Coventry-based firm’s Castle Bromwich plant says the majority of workforce are “p***** off” and the “atmosphere is depressing”.
He added: “There’s a lot of bitterness because nobody is telling the lads and girls in the shop floor what’s going on, when they’re off etc.
“It’s the usual cloak and dagger stuff that always happens but they are seemingly trying to break people’s moral (if there was any).
“If they announce a redundancy people will take it cause quite frankly they’re p***** off.
“This situation is mostly down to JLR trying to grow too big, too quick. New starters have been given a false impression of life in a car factory.
“Most people are just waiting for the axe to swing. There is zero trust in the management of the company.
“And although Brexit is an issue, the vast majority of the problems can be traced back to poor decisions when everyone, including myself, warned them but, yet again, [JLR] wouldn’t listen.
“In most workers’ opinions, unless TATA change how the place is run then there is no future.”
‘Everyone is angry’
A DHL worker stationed at JLR in Lode Lane, Solihull, says staff have been doing overtime to pay back time owed during the two-week stand down.
He said: “I work at the Solihull plant for DHL. Everyone is angry.
“We came back off a two-week stand down to find out they are putting overtime on of a weekend and DHL are forcing people to do the overtime to pay back the hours.
“We are unsure if a stand down is happening at Christmas as lots of rumours are going around.”
‘Always in the back of my mind if I’m going to lose my job’
JLR, according to a Manpower worker on the production line at Lode Lane, has been “too reliant on selling diesel cars” and that there’s “nothing but negativity” surrounding JLR.
He said: A lot of the problems [JLR] face now is their own doing. Yes, the Government isn’t helping with the diesel situation but I think [JLR] are too reliant on selling diesel cars.
“They built a new-build hall and body shop at Solihull four years ago along with new factories in Brazil, Slovakia and China.
“Why didn’t they adapt these buildings straight away and start building hybrid and electric cars back then?
“They could have got ahead of all their competition, rather than now playing catch up with the likes of Tesla and BMW.
“I do feel like these electric cars may be the company’s one saving grace, though, they are just a bit late to the party.
“When I first started working at JLR, all the rhetoric coming from the company was very positive. Now it’s nothing but negativity. It is amazing how quickly things can change.
“It’s not a particularly enjoyable place to work at the moment, especially being on agency.”
“There are endless rumours about shifts being cut; Christmas stand downs; staff being laid off. It’s quite unsettling.
“It’s always in the back of my mind if I’m going to lose my job or not and it’s been like this for most of the year.
“The atmosphere is bad. It’s never really been great since I’ve worked there.
“People just go and get on with it because the money is so good but morale is at an all-time low at the moment, I’d say.
“There’s no empathy towards the situation agency workers are in.
“I’ve known someone on Manpower to come in and work a whole shift with food poisoning because they were worried if they called in sick, they would lose their job.
“I think a lot of people’s frustration is we are always kept in the dark regarding things.
“There’s all this Brexit uncertainty and, yet, the silence from the company on this is deafening.
“We aren’t allowed to book any holidays yet for 2019 as they have yet to finalise the shutdowns due to Brexit.
“Like a lot of people on Manpower, I have no idea if any of us have any sort of long-term future.”
JLR chief executive’s comments
Speaking previously, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Dr Ralf Speth, said the company is already taking action to reverse recent losses.
He said the firm has “launched far-reaching programmes to deliver cost and cash flow improvements”.
Dr Speth added: “Together with our ongoing product offensive and calibrated investment plans, these efforts will lay the foundations for long-term sustainable, profitable growth.”
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