The anger was still there as scores of BMW workers returned to the Cowley plant yesterday morning to hand in their uniforms and identity cards.

The plant, in the middle of a week-long shutdown, seemed eerily quiet and some of the former workers were still shell-shocked 48 hours after being told they were among 850 agency staff being made redundant.

Michael Harper, 38, and wife Lydia said they had suddenly found themselves with nothing.

They left their two children, Liam, six, and Liah, three, with friends while they made their final drive to the Cowley plant — a drive they had to make to avoid a £35 penalty off their final pay cheque for not bringing back their uniforms and IDs.

Mr Harper, who worked at the plant for three years, said: “We went down to JobcentrePlus yesterday but still don’t know exactly how much money we’ll get in benefits. We’ve got to get hold of the P45s first, so there will be a time lag in which we have nothing.

“Now the car will have to go, its only a Metro but it will have to go all the same; and our rent in Wood Farm is £1200 a month. We’ll get behind on that too now.

Workers arriving at the plant were greeted in T-Building by a barrage of people from JobcentrePlus, the Learning Skills Council, and the Department of Work and Pensions, all of whom had been invited to the plant by BMW to help redundant workers with their benefit claims.

Curtis Williams, 47, who worked in the cockpit department for three years, arrived by bicycle to hand back his uniform.

He said: “I can’t understand how the Government can be thinking of giving BMW all this bail-out money that they are now talking about while I am left out in the cold like this.

“I understand that BMW would not have been allowed to behave this way in Germany. It would have been illegal there. Why should we be treated differently?”

Anthony Nash, who started working for right4staff seven years ago, said: “When I first came here I was told that I would get a permanent job with BMW in six months.

“Now I’m out with nothing. I have a wife and two kids living with me. The Jobcentre people I met just now were very helpful but I don’t know yet how much I will get in benefits. I reckon it will be about £94 a week.”

Dinos Santos, 29, with two years work under his belt, said: “I shall look for another job here. There might be some work in the fast food business.

“But the trouble is so many other people want them too. If I can’t get a job I will go back to Lisbon.”

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