Goodyear is cutting pay and axing weekend shifts at its Wolverhampton tyre plant due to the crisis in the car industry, the Express & Star can reveal today.

The move will affect around 225 employees who work in the rubber mixing department.

Following a deal struck in December, employees currently work four out of five shifts and get 60 per cent of their pay for the unworked fifth shift, known as a lay-off day.

But today it emerged that if conditions fail to improve, they can expect 14 lay-off days at 60 per cent and 14 at £20 between now and the end of June.

One worker, who joined Goodyear straight from school more than 20 years ago, said today that he and his family were already struggling to get by and morale on the factory floor was at a low. The 37-year-old, who is married with two children, said: “I have a £600-a-month mortgage – how will I cope on just £20 for a lay-off day?

“It is such a blow to lose the weekend shifts.

“All the lads on the shop floor are completely despondent.”

Goodyear’s corporate communications manager James Bailey said the decision would minimise impact across the whole workforce and avoid job losses.

“If demand improves, we can revert back to our original plans,” he added. Goodyear supplies most of the big-name car manufacturers and has been hit by a fall in demand for its tyres.

Last week it announced £54 million losses, a freeze on white-collar salaries and 5,000 job cuts worldwide on top of the 4,000 shed last year.

The US firm employs a total of 450 people in Wolverhampton.

Managers at the Stafford Road factory are now drawing up new work rotas.

Chairman and chief executive Robert Keegan said: “Given lower industry action, we are taking aggressive action.”