Teg mate, you're right re. the employment contract situation and what Quattro said before. But see the bigger picture here. JLR are stuffed. Land Rover's sales are down nearly 30% YTD in Europe(50% in Sep.). N.America is even worse. They've stopped publishing sales figures(last N.A. figs., July -60%). The boss Davis Smith met Brown last week to basically beg for a bailout, major cash in plain parlance. The parent company Tata Motors is up to its neck with the fiasco over the Nano. There's no way they will bail JLR, even if they had the dough; far easier to browbeat a muppet like Brown to shell out tens, probably hundreds of millions of UK taxpayer money - what's good for the bankers and hedge funders is good for corporate bosses. This is serious sh1t, and goes far beyond 198 non-renewed contract hire staff. JLR are bleeding cash, employing people week after week to sweep floors or sit in rest areas, can't go on. They are essentially a smaller version of the American Big Three - going nowhere fast. Their best hope is to get state cash handout, fast, using the initial 200 job cuts as a pressure builder for their pleas to government. 'Help us - major dough - now or we'll be forced to announce real, sweeping cuts just in time for the Glenrothes by-election and the Christmas shopping period'. It's a sh1tty business but I guarantee this is what's going down right now.
