ONE third of the workforce at a beleaguered Kidderminster motor forgings firm faces the axe with the loss of 70 jobs, it has been announced.

Workers at United Engineering Forgings have been stunned by the severity of the cuts which will see 61 shopfloor and nine blue collar jobs go at the Stourport Road plant.

And in a second blow, union leaders who met with UEF management and administrators last week learnt the company pensions scheme, which is based on a member's final salary, is to be wound up, throwing the financial future of all workers into further uncertainty.

In all, 168 jobs will redundancies will be made throughout the group, the majority at 217-strong Kidderminster plant, with a further 56 going at the Bromsgrove Aston Fields site.

Pat Connolly, chairman of shop stewards at the Kidderminster plant, said: "There's a lot of irate people. We were more shocked than anything by the size of cuts.

"We've taken the largest losses in the whole group, one third of the workforce. It's a big blow for the town."

He said staff had also been devastated by the announcement the company pension scheme was to be wound up within "three to four years."

He said workers were told the decision had been taken because of the number of redundancies of people over 50 had drained pension funds leaving insufficient money to cover similar redundancy payments to those under 50.

Under the scheme, members draw a pension based on their final salary.

With its closure, workers will be forced to take the money accumulated in the fund so far and invest it in personal or other pension schemes which will offer a substantially poorer return.

Mr Connolly said the unions were told the job cuts would not be made for at least two weeks, after the announcement of the winding up of the pension scheme.

Workers at the Kidderminster plant were briefed on the outcome of last week's meeting on Sunday.

But Mr Connolly said a number of large orders securing the company's future for at least another year had been received and management had indicated they did not want to lose staff who could be needed in the future and preferred to institute short-term working.

Meanwhile, the district council and Bromsgrove District Council has joined forces to prepare support for workers faced with redundancy.