Workers who helped clean up flood damage axed

A group of 35 employees at Doncasters Precision Forging, on Penistone Road, were told in July that they could lose their jobs.

Today the company confirmed that 28 workers at the factory, who make parts for aerospace manufacturers, had been let go, made up of 13 voluntary redundancies and 15 compulsory ones.

But according to one former worker, it has come as a bitter blow to all those involved because they had helped to clean up the factory after it was severely flooded.

The former worker also raised concerns about the methods used to identify those who were made redundant saying that "absenteeism and performance" were taken into account rather than the length of time served with the company. He also said there had been some speculation about the reasons the redundancies were necessary - including the possibility that contracts had been lost as a result of flood damage.

A spokesman for the factory said the decision was not connected to damage done by the floods. The firm is the third business hit by the floods to announce redundancies - the others are Clarkson-Osborn International on Penistone Road (45 workers ) and Atkinson-Walker (Saws) on Bower Street.

n Flood victims demand answers - Page 14