Job losses at BMW's Cowley Mini plant postponed

BMW said last month that it had seen a "substantial" fall in demand

Hundreds of proposed job losses at the Mini car factory in Oxford have been postponed.

BMW, which owns the plant in Cowley, said in August that 400 of 950 agency staff would be going.

But it said they would now be kept on after "recent and unexpected improvements in global customer demand".

Production at the factory was halted in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, with work resuming in May.

Last month it was announced the plant would move from a three-shift pattern to running two shifts by mid-October. It would have still operated five days a week.

But the three-shift pattern will be maintained for the time being "in light of higher-than-expected order volumes", a spokesman said.

He added: "We remain in close dialogue with trade union representatives and are keeping our workforce, including agency employees, fully informed of any developments during this uncertain and unpredictable time.

"The continuing market volatility posed by the Covid-19 pandemic means that we cannot say whether, or for how long, positive market trends will continue, and we will of course be keeping the situation under close review in the weeks and months ahead."