Staff were told of the proposed cuts shortly before the change of shift about 3.15pm on Monday.

The Advertiser reported on Tuesday that Thales Australia would seek as many as 55 voluntary retrenchments before December 10 before wielding the axe themselves.

A long-term Thales Australia employee yesterday said that despite the job cuts being blamed on a rapid decrease in business, he was aware of a handful of co-workers who were forced to work four hours overtime on Tuesday night.

“A lot of people are thinking if they’re going to be cutting jobs, we can’t be bothered working,” the employee said.

“The union are putting in a lot of hours trying to sort things out, but HR (human resources) can’t seem to get things right.

“It’s a pain in the backside, Thales just can’t seem to get everything right, they always seem to stuff these things up.”

Thales Australia was unavailable for comment yesterday.

A statement released on Monday from the company’s Bendigo general manager, Ian Cook, said: “While Thales has been successful in securing a number of new contracts throughout 2008, this has not been sufficient to offset the impact of the downturn in production work.

“This restructure does not alter the positive outlook for the protected mobility business in Bendigo and we remain committed to producing the Bushmaster family of vehicles, which have served with distinction in operations around the world.”