One woman had worked at Thales for 17 years – in various roles – when she was made redundant in September 2010.

She said the way Thales handled the redundancy made her feel like it didn’t care about its staff.

“Basically you are escorted off the area and that in itself was difficult,” she said.

“You put your life and soul into the job and then you’re treated like a criminal. They don’t even give you a call to ask how you’re going.

“That’s what hurt the most, more than actually losing my job. That the company you worked for, for so long, didn’t even care enough to pick up the phone and ask you how you’re going. It’s like they don’t care.”

The woman said Thales staff lived in constant fear of losing their jobs.

She said those who were retrenched were made promises that were never kept.

“It annoys me Thales say they will look at redeployment, it’s just

bulls---t,” she said. “Don’t rely on the help you’re promised because it won’t come.”

Another female worker, also retrenched by Thales in November 2010, said she received little support from Thales after her redundancy and found the government jobs network “useless”.

“I just received no help from them, they didn’t put me forward for any jobs at all apart for one where I explicitly asked and by then it was too late,” she said.

The woman said she was forced to take a big career step backwards in order to find work.

Now she’s warning others to be proactive about their job search, and to consider a career change or retraining.