A Braintree firm has axed jobs, workers said today

Nineteen redundancies have been announced at Braintree engineering firm R&T Swann, staff said.

Employees walking in to work at the factory, on the Springwood industrial estate, today said staff were notified last week and one said he was "gutted" at the news.

The managing director of the firm refused to comment to the Evening Gazette.

The company is thought to employ more than 70 people and its work includes making mobile phone towers.

Metal grinder Scott Smith, who has worked for R&T Swann for six years, said there were 19 redundancies in total and those affected got written notification last week.

Mr Smith, 32, of White Horse Avenue, Halstead, said he was pretty gutted.

He added that a Job Centre employee visited the firm on Monday to hand out leaflets and give out job details.

Another employee, who has worked for the company for nine years, said staff knew business was bad because there had not been any over-time work for months.

The man, from Chelmsford but who did not want to be named, said production work for the telecommunications industry had dried up.

It is thought most of the redundancies affect production workers

Published Wednesday, June 25, 2003

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