Ratan Tata, chairman of the $63 billion (Rs 3,200 billion) Tata group said Tuesday that job losses and redundancies would be inevitable unless the British government provided credit support to Jaguar Land Rover, the iconic car making duo in the UK which his group had taken over last year.
In an exclusive interview to UK's Sky News, Tata said, 'If the attitude is to see who blinks first, the damage is going to be quite devastating... because we are not coming for a bailout. Undoubtedly, if funds are not available, a company will not be able to run... so layoffs will take place, redundancies will take place.'
Tata's comments come a little over two weeks after JLR management and its workers agreed to a two-year pay freeze, subject to no compulsory layoffs for the next two years. This is also the first time the Tata chairman has made a direct public appeal to the UK government for credit support.
