POWER tool company Black & Decker is using British workers to set up the Czech factory that has cost 950 North-East staff their jobs, it has been revealed.

The US company is switching power tool production to the Czech Republic where costs and wages are much lower.

The news has come as a bitter blow to the workforce at Black & Decker's plant in Spennymoor.

Staff hoped their jobs were safe after years of productivity improvements.

Instead, production of power tools is to be switched abroad - leaving just a components, research and purchasing facility at the County Durham site.

Now it has emerged that the company has asked for volunteers willing to work in the Czech Republic. Their job will be to help set up the production line and install the machines that will manufacture the tools once made in County Durham.

A selected team of between 15 and 20 employees have been working in the factory, in Usti, 60 miles north west of Prague for several weeks.

Black & Decker last night sought to play down the decision to send British workers to help establish the cut-price manufacturing plant.

A spokesman for the company said it was established policy to use staff from "well established plants" to assist new ones.

But one worker at the North-East factory - who is about to lose his job - said: "It's just another kick in the teeth."

A Black & Decker spokesperson said: "We are a professional global business and are managing the transfer as would be expected of any Black & Decker plant in any part of the world, just as other plants have assisted in the transferring of products to Spennymoor.''

He said that employees were asked purely on a voluntary basis to travel to the Czech Republic to help the transfer go smoothly.

He said: "Our employees regularly help out plants around the world.

"A number of staff have volunteered to assist in the Czech Republic.

"It is completely voluntary. No-one is being forced to do this.''

About 350 staff will be employed at a new plant on a brownfield Czech site in a suburb called Trmice by the end of the year.

Once in full production, about 600 staff will work for the firm in Usti, a town which was severely hit by the floods which affected Eastern Europe recently.

Transfer of professional De Walt tool products from Spennymoor to Usti has already begun and will be complete by the end of next year, say Black & Decker bosses.