JCB workers secure three-year pay deal as digger giant to create up to 500 jobs

Digger giant JCB has pledged to create up to 500 new jobs - as its workers have secured a three-year pay deal. GMB Union has announced the pay deal which guarantees an inflation-matching pay rise for the next three years.

It follows months of negotiations, a workers' ballot, and a commitment from JCB to create up to 500 more jobs.

JCB has today declined to comment on the pay deal and the promise of new jobs.

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But the GMB has welcomed the deal.

Union representative Stuart Harrison said: "After three months of negotiations, this is welcome news for the thousands of JCB workers that make the company the international success story it is.

“Workers across the country are feeling the pinch of a cost-of-living crisis and GMB reps have worked tirelessly to ensure our members at JCB now have the reassurance of pay that keeps up with their bills for the next three years. The investment in 500 new jobs for our area is transformative not just for our workforce, but for the next generation of JCB workers too."

The GMB Union has championed the new pay deal - despite remaining silent over a long-running dispute linked to next year's closure of JCB's World Logistics depot, in Tunstall.

JCB is moving its warehousing operations to East Midlands Gateway Logistics Park, in Derbyshire - a 98-mile round trip for the Stoke-on-Trent workforce - and a £5,000 incentive package to soften the blow has failed to quell worker unrest. Thirty-six members of the workforce were made redundant yesterday.

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