NESTL is considering changes to its Sunday shift patterns for hundreds of KitKat production workers.

The York chocolate maker could be planning to cut its Continental "weekend" shift hours from 21 to 19 for workers in KitKat No 4.

The GMB union said it was aware of the proposals, but said that discussions to talk about any changes had not yet begun.

The union said it was confident of securing compensation for workers who lost hours in the event of any changes.

The Continental system was implemented more than 18 months ago in response to booming demand for KitKat.

It meant Nestl workers moved into regular weekend shifts for the first time. Workers netted a massive basic pay increase, but some were unhappy at what were felt to be "family unfriendly" proposals. The proposed changes would not mean any job losses. John Kirk, of the GMB, said the union had a "flexible agreement" with the company for shift working.

"There are no discussions yet. As part of an agreement with the union, if Nestl needs to reduce the hours, the company would negotiate compensation for that."

It is understood that Nestl is considering the changes because it believes it can meet current production targets with fewer hours.

Mr Kirk said: "The company was toying with this idea before Christmas, but we are still on these shift patterns more than a month later. It has to give us three months' notice anyway. Any discussion would look at the future of the 21 hours shift pattern."

A Nestl spokeswoman said: "In our business people move between shift patterns and plants regularly as demand across our product range fluctuates with new products, promotions and seasonal trends.

"Together with our trades union we are discussing with our employees a reduction in the amount of Sunday production shifts being worked in one of our KitKat plants."

Updated: 11:32 Friday, January 17, 2003