TELECOMS workers in East Lancashire face a nervous wait after BT announced it was cutting 10,000 jobs nationwide.

The main impact of the job losses will be felt amongst sub-contractors and agency workers, 100 of which are employed at the BT office in Jubilee Street, Blackburn.

A further 700 BT workers are employed at the site and the surrounding area.

Union chiefs expressed dismay at the size of the cutbacks and called on the company to offer appropriate redundancy packages.

About 4,000 jobs will be cut directly from BT's own worldwide staff of 112,000 employees.

Andy Kerr, deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union, said: “Ten thousand jobs is a huge number and it will be difficult for BT to shed that amount in one year.

“The CWU will oppose any compulsory redundancies by whatever means necessary.

“We have a meeting set up with BT to discuss the detail of how these reductions will be implemented. We’ll be emphasising voluntary redundancies and natural wastage, but this is clearly far from an ideal situation for BT employees.”

BT said that any redundancies would be on a voluntary basis and that the job losses were vital as the company looked to secure future profits.

Ian Livingston, the BT chief executive, said: “Three out of our four business units - BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach - are delivering on or ahead of target.

"But profits in BT Global Services are simply not good enough and we are taking decisive action to put matters right."

The company is looking to make the cuts by March next year.