From Detroit to Nagoya, car plants are shutting down for days, weeks, even months. Yet in many cases permanent workers are not – yet – losing their jobs, but still being paid through various flexi-time, reduced-pay and sabbatical schemes. One big innovation since the 1990s recession is “time banking” or “time accounts”. Workers are paid during shutdowns but do an equivalent amount of unpaid overtime when demand recovers. Such practices are spreading through industry. A 2005 survey found they covered nearly a fifth of all German workers, helping manufacturers manage the ups and downs of the business cycle.

Sadly, time banking schemes only stretch so far, and were not designed to cope with severe downturns. Honda UK, for example, is halting production at its Swindon plant for four months, paying workers in full under a time banking agreement for two months, then half pay for the next two. Things could get so bad – Fiat forecasts global vehicle demand will plunge 20 per cent this year – that many British auto workers may lose jobs even after being paid to sit around for months.