JCB has announced further redundancies and production cuts despite a staff call to reduce the working week in an attempt to save jobs.

JCB says in a statement that it will reduce production at its UK factories by 34% for the last two months of the year and the first quarter of 2009. This is due to the current economic climate that has led to a significant reduction in in-coming orders.

The production cuts will lead to a further 398 redundancies, including 297 shopfloor jobs.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive officer of JCB, says the vote last month by workers to save 332 jobs was commendable "and JCB is now supporting their decision as much as possible by retaining 336 people who ordinarily would have been made redundant".

"All job losses are regrettable, but we have jointly saved 668 jobs from more than 1,240 that would otherwise have been at risk."

Gordon Richardson, JCB's GMB union spokesperson, says the news comes as a major blow as members will lose their jobs. "This comes after what was a tremendous show of collective unity to reduce our working week to 34 hours, which was by no means an easy decision."

Richardson says he is extremely proud of the GMB members who took a "historic stance for the common good".

"Unfortunately, more of our members will lose their jobs than was originally expected but we can all rest assured that the selfless commitment shown in voting for the shorter working week has, without doubt, saved the jobs of more than 500 GMB members," he says.