Friday rethink angers Rover unions

CAR maker MG Rover faces a new row with unions over plans to force some white-collar staff to work on Friday afternoons. The West Midlands car maker has told about 750 employees that from 1 January, their working time on Fridays will be extended by two hours.

They are not working more hours. They will start later on weekday mornings to make up for the extra time on Friday. But union representatives complain that Rover did not consult them about the move.

Rover says the move is because it needs to streamline office hours across departments such as product design and middle management following the closure of Rover's old headquarters at Bickenhill, Solihull. It was shut down before the car company was sold to a West Midlands consortium last year. A spokesman said: 'Now that Longbridge is our head office and not just a manufacturing base, we simply have to move towards a standard business day.'

Rover, whose chief executive, Kevin Howe, expects the company to become profitable next year, insists that it is entitled to change working arrangements because staff will still work 37 hours a week.

But a union source said: 'This has caused a lot of anger because staff have not been consulted about the change. We are raising the matter with the company through its formal disputes procedure - and if it can't be resolved we may consult lawyers.'

Rover, whose sales soared by 50% last month, is already in dispute with its production workers, who turned down a 2.5% pay rise last month because the proposed deal retained the unpopular 'banked hours' system. These are hours for which employees are paid and take off during slowdowns in production. They then work these hours for no more money when production speeds up again. This month, Rover stood down 1,000 workers for a day because it ran short of gearboxes made by the firm's former owner, BMW.

The company, which recently suffered the embarrassment of recalling 6,000 Mini Classics because of reported engineering problems, has warned its 5,000-workforce that without more flexible working it would have to make job cuts.

Senior union negotiatiors have recommended the package for production workers, but shop stewards who are more closely in touch with the shop floor claim that the proposals would mean working extra hours. But Rover argues that its attempts to introduce a more flexible working regime for all its staff will save jobs.

Despite strong sales growth, the reborn group is not only struggling with high overheads but also faces the possibility of financial ruin because of new legislation on the recycling of old vehicles. Other car makers will also be hit by the regulations, but MG Rover is regarded as particularly vulnerable because it is now a small company and could end up paying most or all of the cost of recycling all the cars it sold when it was a much bigger group.

It has been estimated that MG Rover could have to set aside the money to deal with the thousands of now ageing Maestros and Montegos it sold before being slimmed down. The company could end up having to pay to recycle twice as many cars as it sells every year.