HUNDREDS of Honda employees are returning to work today after production of the CR-V model was suspended due to a technical fault earlier this week.

About 750 people employed in Car Plant 1 in South Marston, where the CR-V is produced, were off work for two days this week after the failure of a key tool on Monday.

The fault, which has affected the production of about 2,000 cars, is currently being fixed and about 500 workers are set to return to work today, with about 250 more returning tomorrow.

A spokesman for Honda said: “Whilst very inconvenient and at a time when Honda is in full swing of production of the acclaimed new CR-V to meet strong market demand across Europe, Honda of the UK Manufacturing (HUM) is working with its suppliers and Honda Japan to resolve the issue and resume production as soon as possible, but remains confident this issue will not adversely affect overall supply of the new CR-V.

“We will be back in production from today. It will be a phased introduction and key areas will start production in the morning.

“Everything will be back to normal on Friday.”

The part affected is a unique welded body part for CR-V models built at HUM.

Immediate counter measure were put in place to minimise the disruption to production after the fault occurred.

Car Plant 2 and the engine plant were unaffected by the disruption.

Workers who were not required to work will have their hours debited under HUM’s Demand Led Scheduling system. There will be no loss of pay.

Demand Led Scheduling is a flexible hours system which increases hours when demand is high and reduces hours when production is lower.

Employees have individual working time accounts, which credit and debit the hours against a standard 37 hours week.

About 150 workers used the time away from Car Plant 1 on Tuesday and Wednesday as an opportunity to take up extra training.

Honda employs 3,500 associates. At the end of this financial year on March 31, Honda’s production in Swindon will be 182,000 – a figure which is unlikely to change for 2013-14, giving full-time work for the associates in Swindon.