Goodyear workers in the Black Country were today returning to a full working week for the first time in 14 months.

Their hours were cut to save the tyre giant money. Today’s announcement comes despite the company revealing this week worldwide losses of £243 million last year and the shedding of 5,700 staff.

Bosses say all 300 full-time employees at the company’s Wolverhampton plant off Stafford Road are again guaranteed a full 42-hour week following 14 months of reduced shifts.

Lay-off days, accounting for one out of every five shifts, were introduced in December 2008 and ext-ended across the entire workforce in March last year in a bid to control costs as orders slumped.

Employees worked four out of five shifts and recei-ved 60 per cent of their pay for the unworked fifth shift.

Today’s announcement follows days of talks between bosses, union leaders and workers’ representatives.

Goodyear’s production director Ian Taylor said 2009 had been a “difficult year”.

“In December 2008, this approach allowed us to balance our inventories in line with demand while at the same time minimising disruption to the work schedule for our associates,” he continued.“Our teams did a superb job in managing shift staffing in a way that ensured lay-offs were kept to the lowest possible level.

“We appreciate that 2009 was a difficult year for our team at Wolverhampton. However, we exit the recession with a similar-sized workforce to the beginning of the downturn. We are confident that our innovative new tyres that help fleets improve vehicle efficiency will help grow demand for our Wolverhampton manufactured range.”

On Monday, Goodyear, which also employs around 900 people at Fort Dunlop in Birmingham, said sales had fallen to £10.6 billion from £12.6b the year before as demand from vehicle manufacturers fell sharply.