Peugeot was accused last night of trying to fast-track the closure of its Ryton factory as the carmaker took a swipe at the unions' #1 million boycott campaign.

Amicus claimed the French firm was considering bringing forward the end game by offering enhanced redundancy packages to workers at the plant near Coventry.

The union, which insisted yesterday that the company had refused to seriously consider its plan for the plant's survival, said around a third of staff have taken up an offer of an additional #4,000 on top of the redundancy packages.

From next week Peugeot will run on a one shift basis until July next year.

Although the company has officially said the plant will shut next summer, with the loss of 2,300 jobs, Peugeot is fast tracking closure and rumours are rife that it will look to axe Ryton as early as October this year, Amicus said.

Roger Maddison, Amicus' national officer for the automotive industry, said: "We understand workers wishes to take advantage of what's on offer when they see closure as an inevitability.

"We have put forward a viable plan for Ryton to remain open as an even more productive and profitable concern but everything that the company has said and done indicates that that they are committed to closing it and perhaps even sooner than they had originally planned.

"If they fail to be convinced by the figures we are presenting in our business case for Ryton, we hope our #1 million Peugeot boycott campaign will persuade them that their decision is wrong and potentially extremely damaging for their sales and reputation."

Peugeot has attacked this campaign, saying the unions were seeking to damage the company and put at risk the jobs of 5,000 workers who will continue to be employed in this country after Ryton closes.

Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union have also been staging protests outside Peugeot dealerships in recent weeks after accusing the firm of abandoning UK employees by switching work to Slovakia. Jean Marc Nicolle, vice president of Peugeot Citroen, insisted that the firm had consulted fully with the unions over the decision to end production at Ryton and was now committed to helping workers find other jobs.

The company said it had studied a union plan aimed at saving Ryton but had decided it wasn't viable, claiming it would cost an extra 100 million euros a year to build a new model at Ryton compared with Slovakia.

Mr Nicolle said Peugeot was opposed to the principle of the boycott campaign, which he maintained was aimed at damaging the firm, and did not believe it would be successful.

He said Ryton's workers had voted against taking industrial action over the closure decision and said he believed the unions did not have a mandate for the boycott.

Despite the unions' campaign, Peugeot was one of the big gainers in new registrations last month, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

The manufacturer saw its UK sales climb by 17 per cent to 12,675 units.

Jim O'Boyle, works convenor for the TGWU at Ryton, said: "They have bribed our members with extra payments to go early. This is exactly what the company wants.

"Peugeot wants to close the factory as quickly as possible. If they are surprised that the workers and the trades unions opposed the closure, that is beyond belief.

"They have planned for this all the time, and if they close early they can say it's because the unions have been horrid. That's hogwash."