Ford said to be cutting hundreds of UK jobs

Ford is reported to be cutting hundreds of jobs in the UK in an attempt to combat faltering profitability.

The American car maker is said to be planning as many as 550 redundancies, predominately at its Dunton plant near Basildon in Essex, according to City AM.

The cuts aren’t expected to affect UK manufacturing employees at the firm’s Dagenham, Bridgend or Halewood plants.

A source told the publication the total number would be “around 500 to 550”, with the axe falling on “white-collar, salaried employees” – and would affect those in management positions, too.

A Ford spokesman said: “As part of a comprehensive European business transformation announced in January, we are reorganising our workforce in the European region. The goal is to significantly decrease structural costs, reduce bureaucracy, empower leaders and managers, and eliminate less value-added work.

“Within this context, in March we confirmed that we would offer voluntary separation programmes for employees in Germany and the UK to help accelerate the plan and return to sustainable profitability.

“Through these programmes and other initiatives, we expect to reduce in excess of 5,000 jobs in Germany, including temporary staff. The total number of positions impacted in the UK is still to be determined.”

Although the cuts are said to affect just the Dunton plant, as many as 1,000 jobs at the firm’s Bridgend plant could be in danger, as the car maker recently warned of personnel reductions there.

It follows Honda’s announcement to close its Swindon factory in 2021 – a decision that affects around 3,500 people.