ALMOST 100 workers will be jobless just before Christmas after one of the county's biggest employers announced a host of redundancies.

Doncasters Precision Castings, which is based in Droitwich, yesterday gave 99 workers "at risk" letters after scaling down production.

The company, which employs almost 500 people, makes blades and vanes for industrial gas turbines.

There will now be a 30-day consultation period during which management will hold meetings with workers, and the redundancies will take place during the next 30 days.

Paul Cooksey, managing director of the firm, said the redundancies had not come as a surprise for employees.

"They were expecting it. They could see from the volume of work that was coming out of the factory," he said.

He said the company's customers, the power generation firms, had recently revised their forecast requirements for 2003 significantly downwards.

"The knock-on effect of this is a significant reduction in the demand for land-based gas turbines, and as a result, it is necessary to review our manning levels. There's no replacement for your market going away, I'm afraid."

The job cuts will come from the site in Vines Lane and from the two sites on the Berry Hill Industrial Estate.

It is the third batch of redundancies at the firm this year, with almost 100 workers already having lost their jobs.

It is thought the cuts will be achieved through a combination of restructuring, voluntary redundancies and a change to shift working patterns.

An employee at one of the Berry Hill sites, who did not wish to be named, said workers were "angry" about the cuts.

"Since the middle of the year, we have been bullied into doing overtime so we could clear the backlog of orders and produce new stock," he said.

"The company said we needed new supplies as the future year looked very promising and there were some new contracts in the pipeline - and then this happens."