Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC is planning to shut down its jet engine factories this summer due to insufficient work, the Telegraph reported on Saturday.

According to the newspaper, this is a first time move for the company and results from what Rolls-Royce described as a “significantly reduced” workload resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The two-week closures, focused around its headquarters in Derby, will affect all of the 19,000 staff within Rolls-Royce’s civil aerospace division, including 12,500 UK staff, which make airliner jet engines.

The Telegraph said exact dates for these shutdowns have not been finalised and are a “response to the collapse in demand for air travel caused by coronavirus”, with staff having been informed their lost pay for the two-week period will be spread throughout the year to ease the impact of this shutdown on employee income.

Rolls-Royce, the Telegraph reported, has said it is not planning to use the government’s furlough scheme to pay wages during the shutdown, even if the furlough scheme is extended past March end.

A Rolls-Royce spokesman told the Telegraph: “Unilaterally claiming furlough for all employees across the UK civil aerospace business in a pre-planned way is not consistent with the intent –nor is it, we believe, within the spirit –of the scheme, as workload is not impacted across all areas.”

Sources within the company, the Telegraph reported: “Emphasised that the shutdown is not because Rolls is close to clearing its order backlog, but about saving money by not working at low volumes, which would be uneconomic.”

Talks with unions have begun with the aim of achieving a 10% improvement in efficiency and productivity, the Telegraph said, the company having agreed not to enact any further job cuts until its current redundancies finish in early 2022 while the efficiency target persists.

A Unite spokesperson told the newspaper: “It would be inappropriate to comment as negotiations are ongoing.”