MORE than 100 jobs will be axed from an Accrington plastics firm in the wake of the MG Rover crisis.

Forty agency staff were told not to return to Automotive Applied Technologies last week and a further 70 permanent employees have been asked to consider voluntary redundancy.

They have until today to decide before compulsory redundancy notices are issued.

From Monday the remaining 100 staff at the Exchange Street base, where interior car parts are made, will work a four-day week.

A worker at the firm, who wanted to remain anonymous, said 40 per cent of AAT's business was for troubled MG Rover, which has gone into administration.

He said: "Everyone's feeling down. It's like a ghost town in there. The redundancies are across the board but the majority will affect the shopfloor.

"The bombshell news was announced on Tuesday and we have to decide if we want to go by Friday; it's not much time. It is devastating. We've all got families to feed. We're worried because there's not much else around. The future is bleak."

Managing director Tony Cox said: "We are uncertain about how things will go with Rover and we have been reducing our dependency on them. At one time they accounted for 50 per cent of our turnover, but we took steps to make sure we were not too exposed.

"Seventy is the maximum number of permanent staff we want to lose and I'm reasonably optimistic it will be fewer than that.

"But action must be taken to ensure the company stays viable.

"Our staff knew the situation at Rover but they are disappointed with the redundancies, the bulk of which will be on the shopfloor."

Dave Waring, Amicus union representative, said: "We are in a consultation period where we're trying to come up with ideas to stop the redundancies or reduce them. But it is early days."