Ford Workers on 4-Day Week In Worst Week in Manufacturing on Record in UK

by Christina 123 | October 1, 2008 at 11:55 am | 26 views | add comment | 0 recommendations

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BRITISH manufacturing experienced its worst ever week on record, as Ford workers began a four-day week as orders at the car manufacturing plant plunged.

Production line staff will not work on Mondays, though they will not lose pay and other workers will work as usual.

In addition, the contracts of 125 temporary workers have not been renewed.

The moves are expected to cut production at the factory from 74,000 vehicles last year to below 70,000.

The news comes ahead of next week's new car sales figures which are expected to show a big fall in the number of registrations last month compared with the September last year.

At the same time today a survey showed factory output tumbled at its fastest pace in at least 17 years in August, leading to thousands of job cuts.

And a separate report showed that Britain’s services sector, which includes pubs, hotels and shops, stagnated for the first time