REDUNDANT car workers have scored a victory against their former bosses, who agreed to double their payout.

The welcome news came last week as the workers’ blockade of the former Visteon UK car parts plant, in Morson Road, Ponders End, entered its second month.

The new deal, from Visteon Corporation, the American parent company of Visteon UK, includes three months’ pay in lieu for redundancy and 52 weeks’ salary.

There will also be a week’s salary for every year served by workers aged 41 or under, or one-and-a-half weeks’ salary for every year served by workers over 41.

The factory’s Unite union convener Kevin Nolan said the result was a victory for him and his former colleagues, although the issue of workers’ pensions was still in doubt.

“We’re looking at it as a victory as four weeks ago we had nothing. I couldn’t feed my kids or pay the bills, but hopefully I’ll be all right for a little while until I can find another job.”

Mr Nolan said former colleagues, who have become a tight band of comrades over the past month, felt relieved rather than jubilant when they got the latest offer, which is a similar package to what they would have received from Visteon UK before it went into administration on March 31.

He said he wanted to thank everyone who had supported the protesters, and praised Unite’s joint bosses Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, who had been “fantastic”.

He also thanked the Enfield Independent for its continuous online coverage of the story.

The 227 Enfield workers were made redundant with no benefits and just six minutes’ notice on March 31, after Visteon UK went into administration.

Inspired by a similar sit-in by workers at Belfast’s Visteon plant, when the Ponders End workers went back to collect their belongings the next day, they decided to stay, staging a rooftop protest that lasted more than a week before they were evicted by a High Court order.

Although the protesters were celebrating yesterday, they say they will remain outside the Visteon plant until they see the money “appear in their banks”.