UNION leaders last night claimed to have saved up to 160 North-East store workers from the axe.

Earlier this week, Littlewoods announced it was shutting down its Index catalogue store chain, with the loss of up to 300 jobs in the region.

But shopworkers' union Usdaw yesterday said the group had promised to redeploy the Index staff in existing Littlewoods outlets, where possible.

Usdaw national officer John Gorle said: "Although there was a robust exchange of views, it was a very positive meeting that will help us effectively deal with our members whose jobs are threatened.

"The good news is that the company have given a real commitment to redeploy as many Index staff as possible within the Littlewoods empire."

However, at least 100 staff who worked for Index at the Littlewoods call centre, in Sunderland, will still lose their jobs.

Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, who own Littlewoods, announced the closures after revealing Index had made losses of more than £100m in the past 20 years.

Total job losses were initially expected to reach 3,200, including store staff, 350 workers at its West Midlands distribution centre and 170 posts at its head office in Liverpool.

The bulk of any redundancies will be from Index concessions inside Littlewoods stores, including those in Darlington, Gateshead, Harrogate, Gateshead MetroCentre, Middlesbrough, North Shields, Stockton, and Sunderland.

A further 800 workers will transfer to Argos, after the catalogue retailer bought 33 stand-alone Index stores. These included sites in York, Scarborough and Newcastle.

No one from Littlewoods was available to comment.