Unite: Car workers should accept deal

If accepted by the wider workforce, the deal will mean a pay rise of 4.5 per cent plus £500 from November 1 and a 3 per cent rise in November next year.

The stewards, who met at the Jaguar Castle Bromwich social club, voted overwhelmingly to accept the deal for the 21,000-strong workforce at Castle Bromwich and Solihull in the West Midlands, Halewood on Merseyside and the research sites at Gaydon and Whitley, also in the West Midlands.

"This will now go to a vote of the workforce and, if they are in favour, the two-year deal will start on November 1," Unite national officer for the car industry Roger Maddison said.

"It is only right that our members share in the nearly £3bn profit made by JLR over the last two years," he added.

From November 2,400 agency staff with JLR will become permanent employees, which Mr Maddison described as "another very welcome boost to British manufacturing employment."