Dagenham workers in for generous Ford payoff - report

Ford, is preparing to offer some of the most generous redundancy packages in the history of British manufacturing in the bid to stave off the messy restructuring of it's Dagenham plant.

According to the Financial Times, the world's second largest car maker will next month announce the end of car assembly at the plant.

It is to offer one-off payments of up to £55,000, for the initial 1,350 workers expected to go, the newspaper reports.

Such a payment is at least double the wage of the average Dagenham worker. It is also anticipated that workers over 50 will be entitled to leave with full pension entitlements.

Ford's British arm is expected to report it's first loss in three years when 1999 figures are published later in the year