Nearly a quarter of the workers spending their final day at redundancy-hit Elementis Chromium today have secured new jobs.

A restructuring programme at the chemical company's Teesside plant comes into force today, with the loss of 114 jobs and the closure of one of its kilns.

RightCoutts, which was appointed by Elementis to provide job support to workers, said 25 per cent of those who came to them for help had secured employment elsewhere.

Project manager Aly Douglas Browell said the early signs had been very encouraging.

"This is a highly-skilled workforce and we are confident that many more employees will secure alternative careers in the coming months," she said.

Of the 114 workers made redundant, 101 registered for RightCoutts' support.

They will continue to receive one-to-one advice and training from RightCoutts' temporary base at Elementis for the next three months.

The firm, which employs 12 consultants across the region and has a further six staff at its office in Team Valley, Gateshead, has a 90 to 95 per cent achievement rate of finding work for people who have been made redundant.

Elementis Chromium announced its intention to restructure operations at its Eaglescliffe plant in October last year, in order to restore profitability and bring long-term security to the site.

The multi-national, which is made up of four divisions, blamed high energy costs for continued losses at the plant.

Site director David Raw said: "It is a credit to every employee that the whole workforce has pulled together so well to help in this difficult period of change.

"The 90-day consultancy process was a period of uncertainty for many people and they weathered that storm very well.

"The company remains confident that the newly structured business will deliver stable and sustainable earnings."

The Amicus and Transport and General Workers (T&G) unions held numerous meetings with Elementis throughout the consultation period to try to reduce the number of redundancies.

Joe Keith, the T&G's senior regional industrial organiser, yesterday said he was disappointed with the outcome.