The present paper deals with the analysis of the boundary-layer flow of a micropolar fluid on a fixed or continuously moving permeable surface. Both parallel and reverse moving surfaces to the free stream are considered. The resulting system of non-linear ordinary differential equations is solved numerically using the Keller-box method. Numerical results are obtained for the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number for some values of the parameters, namely the velocity ratio parameter, suction/injection parameter and material parameter, while the Prandtl number is fixed to be unity. The results indicate that dual solutions exist when the plate and the free stream move in opposite directions. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.