Thousands of workers returned to work at Honda’s car plant in Swindon this morning, as the factory prepares to restart production of Civic and CR-V models for Europe.
Production at Honda of the UK Manufacturing (HUM) was suspended for four months in February, following a drop in demand for new cars due to the economic downturn.
Thousands of workers agreed to a 3 per cent pay cut for the next 10 months while managers have accepted a 5 per cent cut. Some 1,300 people took voluntary redundancy during the four month shutdown, reducing the workforce to about 3,400.
Staff got full pay for two months of the shutdown and 55 per cent for the remainder.
While the plant idled, Honda took the opportunity to upgrade facilities and test new equipment.
