WORKERS were last night fearing for the future of a North-East factory as the US-owned company announced further redundancies.

Two years ago, Black & Decker shed more than 1,000 jobs in Spennymoor, County Durham, in an effort to reduce costs by moving production to the Czech Republic.

The factory was only saved from closure by a Government "sweetener" of an aid deal, which persuaded Black & Decker to keep on 470 of the 1,400 staff in Spennymoor.

Last night, even that was looking in doubt as the power tool maker confirmed it was looking for some voluntary redundancies.

A statement from the company said: "Black & Decker can confirm it is looking for a small number of volunteers from its existing workforce of 470 to take redundancy. Only a few departments will be affected.

"The decision to lose the positions has been taken reluctantly and is necessary for the company to maintain its competitive position in the marketplace."

Black & Decker refused to say exactly how many redundancies it was looking for and even the workforce are in the dark about how many jobs are to go.

One worker, who did not want to be named, said they had been told if there were not enough volunteers for redundancy, then there would be compulsory job losses.

She said: "They are hardly telling us anything. It is like last time - we don't know what's going on and we don't know how many people will lose their jobs.

"It was soul-destroying when we went through it last time.

"But the thing is, they have been pushing us so much lately we thought it was going really well. Now we don't know about the future at all."