Pressure from Britain’s leading union Unite, has prevented the employment agency Adecco from sacking hundreds of agency workers at the world-renowned luxury car manufacturer Bentley Motors.

Earlier this month, around 200 agency workers based at Bentley’s site in Crewe were told they were being made redundant by Adecco, while the car manufacturer began temporarily ceasing production due to the COVID-19 health crisis.

But a fierce intervention from Unite reversed Adecco’s decision and the agency workers have now been put into the government’s job retention scheme on 80 per cent of their pay.

Unite regional officer, Julie Burgess said: “If these workers had been made redundant, they would have found it extremely difficult to find alternative work and would have been forced onto universal credit. A soon as Unite was informed that Adecco was planning to make workers redundant, the union exerted maximum pressure and we are very pleased the employment agency has now agreed to use the government’s furlough scheme.

“In these unprecedented times it’s imperative that employers behave responsibly and use the government’s scheme wherever possible. Because these agency workers had union recognition, Unite was able to intervene and negotiate a fairer outcome.”