BENDIGO manufacturer Thales has axed 50 jobs, one-fifth of its total workforce.The job losses had been blamed on Thales’ failure to secure a defence contract for Bushmaster utes.“As foreshadowed in December, the outcome of major vehicle programs will have implications for the workload at our Bendigo facility,” a spokesperson for Thales said in a statement issued yesterday.“For the next two to three years we will have a lower production rate than in the past, and that will mean a reduction in our workforce.”Australian Manufacturing Workers Union state organiser Damian King said workers had been left “bitterly upset and fearful for their futures” after the announcement.Mr King believes up to 60 jobs will go, 45 from the shop floor and another 15 in engineering, administration and technical areas.He was scathing of the decision to award the Bushmaster contract to a German company in December.“The federal government is taking the cheaper option and isn’t going for the Australian company with a proven safety record,” he said.“Thales missed out on this ute contract not due to the quality and performance of the Bendigo vehicle, but due to the high value of the Australian dollar and the low value of the Euro.”Federal member for Bendigo Steve Gibbons admitted the job losses were a direct result of Thales being overlooked for the Bushmaster contract. “Winning the Land 121 Phase 3 contract would have meant around 200 Thales Bushmaster Utes manufactured at the Bendigo plant,” he said.“The Land 121 Phase 3 contract, awarded to the German company Rheinmetall MAN, would have gone a long way to filling the gap between the conclusion of the current Bushmaster personnel carrier production and the start of the Land 121 Phase 4 Hawkei PMV-L program expected in two to three years”.Mr Gibbons blamed the Defence Materiel Organisation – a project management organisation which acquires equipment for the Australian Defence Force and advised the government not to award the Bushmaster contract to Thales – for the production gap.“The Defence Materiel Organisation is the most frustrating organisation I’ve ever had to deal with,” he said.“They and their predecessors have an appalling track record of not delivering programs on time and wasting hundreds of millions if not billions of taxpayer dollars, under both Liberal and Labor federal governments.”