VIENNA (AFP) - Magna-Steyr, the Austrian arm of Canadian car parts supplier Magna International, said Wednesday it would extend short-time work by another six months for more than 3,000 employees.

Magna-Steyr, which already put staff at its plants in Graz and Albersdorf on short-time work in November 2008, said it had been given the green light by the state labour agency AMS to extend the measure for a further six months.

The Graz factory makes the BMW X3 model, but production is scheduled to be phased out next year.