MORE than 200 workers at Bentley's prestige car plant have signed up to leave the company after the night shift was scrapped.

Staff at the car-maker's factory, in Pyms Lane, Crewe, put their names forward for its voluntary release scheme after overnight production was scrapped because of falling sales.

Bentley, which is currently on a month-long Christmas shutdown, has also laid off up to 60 temporary production workers after seeing year-to-date UK sales fall 32 per cent.

Spokesman Mike Hawes said the company was sad to lose valuable workers, but said it had managed to avoid compulsory redundancies.

Meanwhile, Bentley has embarked on a huge training exercise with its 3,600 remaining employees as it aims to bounce back stronger after the credit crunch.

Mr Hawes said: "We have got to look after the security of our full-time staff and we were confident that we could do that through the redeployment and voluntary release. We need to reduce production and the last thing we wanted to do is to make cars we can't sell."

The voluntary release offer – which was available to all Bentley staff – ended on December 5.

Bentley received a total of 206 applications. It has already approved 157 and the remaining 49, which were received late, will be considered by bosses after the Christmas shutdown.

The Sentinel reported last week that Bentley's Christmas shutdown was moved from December 23 to December 11 because of falling demand.

When workers return on January 12, the night shift will have been scrapped.

Employees are being paid during the Christmas shutdown but have to work their hours back when the market picks up – known as time-banking.

However, the company is offering to pay workers to turn up for training and more than 1,000 employees have undertaken skills and improvement courses since the restructure was announced.

Mr Hawes said: "We are increasing our training. People have more downtime so we have set out to encourage people and offer more training opportunities.

"That is something that we want to continue because while there is an economic downturn, we are determined that we want to come out of it in a stronger position."

David Leggett, editor of car website just-auto.com, said car-makers across the globe are suffering because of the credit crunch.

Their plight is highlighted by cash-starved giants General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, which have pleaded for a $14 billion rescue package for the flagging U.S. car industry.

Mr Leggett said: "It is not just in Britain that manufacturers are extending their shutdowns, it is happening across the world. Car-makers are finding that their stock levels are building up because of lower demand."