PTI

London, Nov 5: Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover has announced plans to axe 400 more jobs in view of the current global economic downturn. 

"The company was considering axing between 300 and 400 manufacturing jobs by the end of January," JLR spokesman Mark Foster said.

The plans have been announced to the company's 16,000-strong workforce that is currently facing short-time working and prolonged plant shutdowns. The 400 redundancies are on top of the 198 job losses JLR recently announced as part of its "annual efficiency drive".

The company has asked for volunteers for redundancy among manufacturing workers at its three vehicle assembly sites in Castle Bromwich in Birmingham, Lode Lane in Solihull and Halewood on Merseyside.

"We are looking for volunteers. Applications for the 198 redundancies we announced earlier were heavily oversubscribed. We don't see any significant change in trading conditions in the near future," Foster said.

Shifts have been scrapped at the three plants and shutdowns have been extended as the company cuts output in the teeth of a sales slump that has hit virtually every Europe and US carmaker.

“The environment remains volatile but it is encouraging the cost of raw materials is coming down from its peak and the move in the value of the pound has been favourable to Jaguar Land Rover and will benefit our profitability. We will continue to monitor the situation,” he added.

JLR chief executive David Smith said: "While regrettable, this is a necessary action to manage our business through a very challenging period."