Logistics company DHL has laid off more than 160 agency staff based at the J aguar Land Rover plant in Halewood, the ECHO understands.
The company, which employs staff at the Halewood plant in a variety of supply chain roles, is understood to have let 162 staff go since Friday morning as the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt businesses.
The ECHO understands that 80 agency staff were sacked on Friday and a further 80 were also laid off in the days after Jaguar Land Rover announced it was closing its Halewood plant due to the virus .
The staff who lost their jobs were employed by DHL through the recruiter Staffline Group PLC, many of whom had worked at the plant for as long as six years.
DHL insists that the redundancies are unrelated to the virus and that they were part of a ‘volume rundown’ at the plant announced in January.
A source familiar with the situation at the plant told the ECHO: “I think it’s disgraceful that DHL has chosen to do this.
“They could have applied to the government for the 80% pay for the members of staff who have been laid off but that doesn’t seem to have been considered at all.
“They’re getting rid of staff when there’s no jobs out there. These people are now stuck at home with no wages with families to feed. DHL are kicking people while they are down.
“80 people were sacked on Friday. They just phoned round everybody and finished them up. It’s a disgrace.”
DHL declined to provide a statement but said that the job losses were unrelated to the shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and that they were part of a ‘volume rundown’ at the plant announced in January.
DHL is the world’s largest third party logistics provider and its operating profit for 2019 was €4.1 billion, up 30% on 2018.
When approached by the ECHO, Staffline Group Plc declined to comment and said that it “does not provide comment regarding specific customers and their associated workers.”
