Toyota is temporarily shutting down its Burnaston and Deeside plants - but denies the move has anything to do with the current recalls on its cars.
Production had been set to stop for a week at the Burnaston factory in Derbyshire and the Deeside plant in Wales before Easter. That stoppage has now been extended by another working week and will now run from 29 March to 9 April.
The production halt affects 3500 workers at Burnaston, which makes the Auris and Avensis, and 500 on Deeside, which produces engines.
A spokesman explained: "These shutdowns were instigated months ago, as part of plans to reduce two production lines into one in light of sales predictions for the year. On top of that, we need to prepare for the Auris hybrid."
Toyota is also pushing ahead with a voluntary redundancy programme to cut 750 staff over the two plants, in what it describes as an "efficiency drive".
Meanwhile, the head of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, has bowed to mounting pressure and agreed to appear before the US Congress to answer questions about the current spate of recalls. He had initially insisted that he would not testify.
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