THE Newton Abbot engineering firm, Centrax, which recently announced that it would be making 100 employees redundant during the coming two months, has been called 'immoral' and its business plan 'despicable' by union members who are now threatening to strike.

In a members' meeting outside the gates of Centrax, in Milber, around 50 shop floor employees were told by union leaders that a consultancy ballot would be held to judge the feeling among members this week, before an official ballot in the next month. Officials of the Amalgamated Engineers Union (AEU) and the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) believe that a strike is the most likely course of action.

It is Centrax's decision to replace sacked full-time staff with part-time workers as part of a cost-cutting business plan that has stirred the union into action. Twenty full-time employees were recently let go only to be replaced by 19 part-time workers the following week and no part-time workers are being considered for redundancy.

'We are not arguing the fact that they've got to cut costs,' said Mark Richards of the TGWU. 'We can see that. What we are asking for is fairness to the redundancy at the end of the day. But the company is saying that part-timers will not be in the redundancy pool and one of the reasons for that is shift-premiums. They do not get them but full-timers do. Therefore, it's simple for them to cut full-time jobs and employ part-timers for cost-effectiveness.'

An aggressive divide has now materialised between part-time staff and full-timers, with reports of graffiti in toilets and verbal abuse on the shop floor. However, Mark Richards is keen to point out that the unions are not trying to force part-time staff out.

'I will stress that it's fairness that we are after,' he said. 'Part-timers have the same entitlements as everyone else, but we'd like it the other way round and that's the impression we're getting from members as well.'

Rob Smith, chairman of the Joint Shop Stewards' Committee and member of the AEU and the TGWU, agreed and said members were realistic about Centrax' economic downturn. 'All we're after is equality. If the company are in the downturn and people need to leave, it's unfortunate. But we are grown-ups and it is the reality of life, so let's share the pain.'

Full-time workers facing the sack are also being dealt the double blow of having to train the new staff who will ultimately be taking over their jobs. 'Some of them have only been here for a matter of weeks and are of very little use to the employer because they are still learning,' said Mr Smith. 'Yet the company expects the full-time people to show up everyday to show the new people their livelihoods, knowing that it's going to effect their own.'

Four employees, one of whom has been working at the company for 30 years, are currently in the process of taking Centrax to an industrial tribunal for unfair dismissal.