LONDON BRIEFING: Members of the GMB union at JCB have agreed to take a pay cut of £50 a week, writes Fiona Walsh

JUST AS turkeys don't vote for Christmas, workers don't normally vote for pay cuts - until last week, that is.

In a new twist to the economic downturn, members of the GMB union at construction equipment firm JCB agreed to take a pay cut of £50 (€62.64) a week to protect jobs. Some 2,500 workers at JCB's seven factories in England and Wales will go on a four-day week for at least six months, a move that will, for the time being at least, safeguard 500 jobs.

The axe will still fall, only not so heavily: about 150 posts are to be culled by the end of the year, on top of the 400 that went three months ago.

Spreading the pain among the workforce is an intelligent way to combat the downturn and it has a number of advantages, both for the company and its employees.

For JCB, it means being able to retain the services of its skilled staff, putting the firm in a strong position to gear up swiftly once the upturn comes.

JCB chief executive Matthew Taylor hailed the "great team spirit" shown by the union, but there must be a limit to how long it can be sustained: will the workforce continue to support the scheme if it extends beyond six months or if even greater sacrifices are called for? They may ultimately prefer to take their chances with redundancy.

The omens are not auspicious. The dire state of the construction industry has forced the firm to slash output at its British factories by almost 20 per cent.

With confirmation last week that the British economy is contracting even faster than feared, there is no immediate relief in sight and the JCB workforce only have to look over their shoulders to see the deepening gloom elsewhere in the sector.

On Monday, house-builder Persimmon shocked the market once again, this time with a warning that it was writing down the value of its land bank by £600 million.

The crisis of confidence caused by the credit crunch, combined with the near-paralysis of the mortgage market, was affecting all parts of the company's British operations, the group said. Its cancellation rates spiralled to 40 per cent last month and it sees little relief until the British government comes good on its promise to stimulate the mortgage market.

Elsewhere in the sector, the future looks grim for the 320- strong workforce of David McLean Holdings. The north Wales-based building firm has collapsed into administration and, while its house-building division may attract a buyer, its contracting arm is to be closed.

Other firms may decide to follow JCB's lead by spreading the pain among the workforce. However even with unions and employers working together to stave off the worst, there is little doubt that many more building and construction workers will lose their jobs before this recession runs its course.

If you build it, will shoppers come?

Retail is detail, but timing is everything . . . and it doesn't take a genius to work out that tomorrow's launch of Britain's - nay, Europe's - biggest urban shopping centre has not come at the most auspicious point in the retail cycle.

Tomorrow, London mayor Boris Johnson will officially open Westfield, a vast shopping centre in west London's Shepherd's Bush.

At a cost of £1.7 billion and 20 years in the making, Westfield covers an astonishing 43 acres and sprawls over nine of the capital's postcodes.

This huge retail complex houses almost 300 shops, including upmarket names such as Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Prada.

The developers admit the timing could have been better, but they are putting on a brave face, pointing out that they are in this for the long term and that the centre is almost fully let.

Big names have been attracted by rent-free deals of up to a year and terms thereafter that will undercut established areas such as Kensington, King's Road and Bond Street.

While Westfield claims not to be in competition with central London's premier shopping streets, it is just half-a-dozen tube stops away from Oxford

Street and it is impossible to imagine that it will not have an impact.

Christmas 2008 was always going to be a white-knuckle ride for London's retailers, but the arrival of this glittering temple to consumerism has significantly upped the ante.

Further out, Westfield is looking to east London for its next major project, with an even bigger shopping complex scheduled to open in Stratford in 2011, just ahead of the Olympic Games.

• Fiona Walsh writes for the Guardiannewspaper in London