CABLE company NTL said last night it was outsourcing 54 jobs at its Stockton call centre as part of plans to cut 6,000 posts nationwide by the end of next year, following its merger with rival Telewest.

But a threat still hangs over the 460-strong workforce at the contact centre, on the Preston Farm Industrial Estate.

The group said the 54 workers affected in its fault management division at Stockton would have their contracts transferred to IBM in Swansea or Liverpool.

Yesterday's cutbacks - the first in a series of announcements - affected a total of 1,535 staff, including 690 in Liverpool and 791 in Swansea, who will also transfer to IBM.

The remaining 4,465 staff cutbacks will be announced in due course, a spokeswoman said.

She would not give any further details about where the remaining jobs would go, but did not rule out redundancies at Stockton.

More than a third of NTL's 17,000 staff will be affected by the upheaval, which will see 3,000 roles axed and 3,000 outsourced to firms such as IBM.

NTL said it hoped that a large number of the cuts would be achieved through natural wastage, voluntary severance and a reduction in part-time staff, although it is understood there could be up to 1,000 compulsory redundancies. About 80 per cent of the changes will take place by the end of this year.

NTL chief executive Steve Burch said: "We are making a concerted effort to keep the number of compulsory redundancies to an absolute minimum."

The move comes as NTL looks to make cost savings of £250m by the end of 2007 following its takeover of Telewest for $6bn (£3.2bn) in March.

But the company was criticised by the union Amicus, whose national officer Peter Skyte described the developments as "a devastating blow for thousands of employees across the whole country".

He added: "There is no corporate social responsibility in this announcement and it is difficult to fathom how cutting so many UK jobs will be good for NTL's customers."

Mr Burch said that, although the exact details of the shake-up were still being finalised, he did not expect any jobs to be sent abroad to countries such as India.

NTL has radically reshaped itself since emerging from bankruptcy protection in 2003, beginning with a major financial overhaul to generate new capital and reduce interest repayment charges.

It organised a rights issue to raise £824.3m and trimmed its workforce, with 1,500 call centre staff losing their jobs in cuts announced two years ago.

Yesterday's news is a fresh blow to British industry after mobile phone group Orange, which employs more than 5,000 people in the region, announced plans last week to axe up to 2,000 jobs under a review of its operational costs.

Rival telecoms firm Cable & Wireless warned in February that it may reduce its 5,500-strong UK workforce to between 2,500 and 3,500 over the next four to five years.