Unpaid Daewoo workers have today been told they will get their salaries for last month - but the cash will not be coming from the Korean company.

More than 750 staff at the firm's technical centre in Worthing were finally told they would receive wages from an unnamed European subsidiary company. They are said to be "relieved".

Staff at Daewoo headquarters in Hertfordshire decided to take action after their Korean bosses postponed a meeting about the cash crisis until tomorrow.

Creditors had been due to sit round the table in Korea and decide the future of the Worthing operation but the meeting was adjourned and no reason given for its collapse.

money should be in employees' bank and building society accounts by the weekend. This was the fourth time workers had not been paid on time but the car giant has pledged to pay any costs they have incurred.

Problems started for the company when Korea went into economic crisis and the car giant has been on the market for some time now.

A Daewoo spokeswoman said: "We have managed to secure some funds to pay staff at the Worthing centre. We could not wait for the creditors to meet and pulled out all the stops and got the money advanced.

"The payment has come from a European subsidiary but I am unable to give any details about it.

"There seemed no option. We could not keep these workers waiting any longer. So we contacted embassies, diplomats, the department of trade and industry and managed to find a way to pay them.

"When we informed the centre of the news there was a feeling of relief."

Meanwhile, it has emerged that car giant Ford has been targeting Daewoo workers to fill 300 European vacancies. It held a recruitment day at the Windsor Hotel in Worthing yesterday.

A Ford spokeswoman said: "Obviously we heard the bad news about Daewoo and decided Worthing would be a good place to hold a recruitment day as there are a lot of skilled workers there."