New Jaguar Land Rover talks end

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Talks between management and unions over the future of Jaguar Land Rover have broken down after six days.

Discussions centred on proposed changes to pay and pensions announced in September as part of the firm's strategic review.

The company had offered to guarantee 8,000 full-time staff would be kept on until 2015 in return for cuts to new starters' salaries and pensions.

But bosses say they have withdrawn the deal after the collapse of the talks.

In September, Jaguar Land Rover said it wanted to close one of its plants in the West Midlands within the next five years.

The firm has plants in Solihull, West Midlands, Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, Gaydon, Warwickshire and Halewood, Merseyside. It also proposed a reduction in new worker's starting salary and changes to its final salary pension scheme.

The plant closures did not form part of the recent talks, which concentrated on a revised management offer guaranteeing that 8,000 full-time staff would be kept on until 2015.

In exchange, management wanted to cut new employee's wages to about 80% of the current starters' salaries and close its final salary pension scheme to new workers, Professor David Bailey of Coventry Business School added.

"From the management point of view they are looking to make cost savings, from the union's point of view what they want is a guarantee on volumes and production, but management can't guarantee that," he said.

Jaguar Land Rover sent out a briefing to workers on Friday informing them it was withdrawing its staff and production guarantee and that talks had finished without agreement.