Change Custom Post Type Slug

Hi

I have a custom post type – works – being declared by my theme, as follows –

if ( ! function_exists( 'md_works' ) ) {
	function md_works() {

		$labels = array(
			'name' => _x( "Works", "Post type name", 'dronetv' ),
			'singular_name' => _x( "Works", "Post type singular name", 'dronetv' ),
			'add_new' => _x( "Add New Project", "work item", 'dronetv' ),
			'add_new_item' => __( "Add New Project", 'dronetv' ),
			'edit_item' => __( "Edit Project", 'dronetv' ),
			'new_item' => __( "New Project", 'dronetv' ),
			'view_item' => __( "View Project", 'dronetv' ),
			'search_items' => __( "Search Project", 'dronetv' ),
			'not_found' =>  __( "Not found", 'dronetv' ),
			'not_found_in_trash' => __( "Trash is empty", 'dronetv' ),
			'parent_item_colon' => ''
		);

		register_post_type( 'works' , array(
			'label'=>_x('Works','Type','dronetv'),
			'description'=>__('Special type of post for creating project','dronetv'),
			'labels' => $labels,
			'public' => true,
			'menu_position' => 5,
			'show_ui' => true,
			'show_in_menu' => true,
			'publicly_queryable' => true,
			'exclude_from_search' => true,
			'query_var' => true,
			'menu_icon'=>get_template_directory_uri() . '/images/portfolio_icon.png',
			'rewrite' => true,
			'capability_type' => 'post',
			'hierarchical' => false,
			'supports' => array( 'title', 'editor','thumbnail')
			)
		  ); 

		//$wp_rewrite->flush_rules();
		flush_rewrite_rules();
	}
}

I want to change the slug from ‘works’ to something else. I know I can do this by changing the ‘rewrite => true’ line of code to ‘rewrite => array( ‘slug’ => ‘my-new-name’ )’. However my code will be lost when the theme is updated.

I have a child theme activated. My question is whether there a way to achieve this change of slug by adding some sort of filter function in the child theme functions.php file?

Any advice appreciated.

Johnny