PSA Pegueot Citroen has started consultations with staff and unions over the planned closure of its fourth shift at Ryton on 23 June.

Ryton, alone among PSA's (and the UK's) assembly plants has operated four shifts since December 2002, when extra capacity was needed for the launch of the 206SW and GTi 180 models. Like the plant's other shifts, it employs about 700 workers, but 98 of these are employed on temporary terms and 444 on contracts of less than three years' duration.

In consultation with the plant's unions and local business organisations, PSA hopes to minimise the number of redundancies caused by the return to three-shift production at Ryton.