BMW will reportedly cut 400 jobs at the Mini factory in Oxford, following a sharp fall in customer demand as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The BBC reports that the affected workers are employed by agency Gi Group, and individual decisions will be made based on length of service, skill sets and disciplinary records.
Gi Group employs 950 of the approximately 4000 workers at the site. Those affected are employed full-time on the production line.
The job cuts come as BMW prepares to move the factory from a three-shift pattern to two shifts in October, following changes to its production forecast in light of the global downturn. It's expected that production capacity will be reduced from 1000 cars per day to between 800 and 900.
BMW closed the site for nearly two months during the coronavirus lockdown, restarting operations in May with social-distancing measures in place.
Bob Shankly, human resources director at Mini, told the BBC: "Like other automotive manufacturers, our volume forecasts for 2020 have had to change accordingly.
"We have, therefore, made the difficult decision to adjust our shift patterns at Mini Plant Oxford from October.
"This will give us the flexibility we need to adapt our production in the short to medium term, according to developments in global markets.”
In a joint statement issued in the wake of the news, councillors Susan Brown and Anneliese Dodds expressed sympathy for those losing their jobs and said that “while the plant is very productive”, the pandemic has “posed major difficulties for the automotive industry”, both domestically and internationally.
They added: “We will both continue to work with BMW Cowley to do what we can to ensure the future of the plant and to protect local jobs."
Read more
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Just a quick point of information...
There is an error in the penultimate paragraph of the above article: Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, is the Member of Parliament for Oxford East, while Susan Brown is the Leader of Oxford City Council.
Hopefully, someone on Autocar's Editorial Team might have a moment to correct the error...
@xxxx
autonews . com/automakers-suppliers/renault-posts-2019-loss-sets-lower-profit-goal-crunch-year
Renault posted a -0.15b profit, compared to 3.6b in 2018. A loss, yes, but far, far from a record loss. It's almost no loss at all. JLR had a 3.6b loss in 2018 while being a much smaller manufacturer.
If you bother to read the article, you can find this:
"Nissan's contribution to Renault's income plunged to 242 million euros ($262 million) last year from 1.51 billion euros ($1.6 billion) the year before. Renault has a 43 percent stake in Nissan, which earlier this week posted its first quarterly loss in nearly a decade and cut its profit forecast."
Remoan Andrew
What is a m*n. As to the rest of the insults, well that sums you up.
p.s. Renault lost 9 billion in the first half of 2020 hence share price 5 years ago was 80 euros now 24 euro. Explain that
So basically
MINI are getting rid of agency workers, who are probably very expensive to hire, whilst the workers probably recieve little more than minimum wage from the agency. Its an easty way to cut costs whilst protecting their own workforce and keeping the unions happy.
Not the only people.
I have a cousin the wrong side of forty, recently unemployed but managed to get an hourly contract through the job centre, when the Ballon went up, guess who was first out the door?