By Ulrike Dauer and Cecilia Butini 
 

Deutsche Post AG could lay off up to 2,200 workers employed in the DHL supply chain business for auto maker Jaguar Land Rover in the U.K., according to British union Unite.

Potential layoffs would impact almost 40% of Deutsche Post's DHL employees on the Jaguar Land Rover logistics contract, the union said in a release posted on its website on Tuesday.

According to Unite, Deutsche Post has cited the declining auto production resulting from the coronavirus crisis and efficiency savings as reasons for the possible job losses.

Deutsche Post Chief Executive Frank Appel admitted the situation at Jaguar Land Rover was "tense," but didn't confirm the U.K. union's numbers on a Wednesday media call on quarterly results.

DHL as a contractor for JLR was affected, but "we cannot yet gauge the scale of the issue and will talk with labor representatives," Mr. Appel said.

Jaguar Land Rover is owned by India's Tata Motors Ltd., which last month reported a loss for the January-March quarter due to the pandemic.

Mr. Appel said that the magnitude of the redundancies at the moment "is still completely unclear." He said the company would try to save as many jobs as possible and would make an effort to find new postings.

According to Unite, the affected workers would be contract employees in all JLR plants in the northwest of England and in West Midlands, which include plants in Castle Bromwich, Ellesmere Port, Halewood, Hams Hall, Midpoint, Solihull and Tyrefort.

"DHL must not attempt to make permanent full-time staff redundant while continuing to outsource work to subcontractors," Unite said.

Write to Cecilia Butini at cecilia.butini@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 08, 2020 05:35 ET (09:35 GMT)

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