MG Rover has won its appeal against a ‘Jobs for Life’ ruling which would have protected its workers against compulsory redundancies.

The case centred on an agreement between unions and Rover’s previous owner BMW. Instead of job-losses, the carmaker committed to redeploying or retraining workers.

One employee took MGR to court after being made redundant, with backing of the Transport and General Workers Union. She won her case.

However, the Court of Appeal overturned that judgement on the basis that the “no compulsory redundancy” term was not intended to be part of the worker’s employment contract.

MG Rover says the decision will not alter the way it works with unions to avoid compulsory redundancies wherever possible. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, chairman John Towers said: “In a comp-any where we ask people to retrain, we can’t have a handful of people sitting on their hands, saying they will not do different jobs.”

Last week MG Rover closed its Longbridge plant for four days, and announced an extra four-day holiday at Christmas to “balance stocks”.