Talks with workers fail, JLR CEO quits
London, Jan. 26: Jaguar Land Rover chief executive officer, Mr David Smith, has quit the Tata Motors-owned luxury carmaker. Mr Smith, 48, who had taken over as JLR chief executive in June 2008, has left with immediate effect.
Jaguar Land Rover director and Tata Motors vice-chairman, Mr Ravi Kant, will assist with the handover of duties and assume day to day responsibilities of the chief executive until a permanent successor is annou-nced, the firm announced.“The company would like to thank David for his efforts in the role and for his service to Jaguar and Land Rover over many years,” JLR said on Friday.
However, no reason was given by the company for the sudden departure of Mr Smith, who has been the chief executive of the company since the Tata takeover.
Tata Motors had bought the luxury carmaker in 2008 for $2.3 billion from American car giant Ford Motor.
Mr Smith’s departure came just after talks between Jaguar Land Rover and trade unions over pension and salary restructuring collapsed last week.
Jaguar Land Rover in September last year had announced a new restructuring plan that would lead to cost reductions by pension restructuring, lower employment costs for new hires and a focus on IT and business simplification. JLR had reduced production by more than 100,000 units, cut 2,500 jobs and froze pay and cancelled bonuses in 2008 to deal with economic downturn.
Jaguar Land Rover said the talks with trade unions had been held over a number of proposals relating to terms and conditions for future employees in line with the new restructuring plan. However, the unions were unable to agree to these proposals, the firm said.
In September, Jaguar Land Rover had also announced closure of a plant in the West Midlands in the long-term. The firm has two plants in West Mi-dlands — Jaguar factory at Castle Bromwich and Ran-ge Rover site at Solihull.
AGE CORRESPONDENT
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