WORKERS are reeling from a second jobs blow at computer giant Time -- but company bosses have refused to announce publicly exactly how many people are to go.

The Simonstone-based firm confirmed that staff had been made redundant at the Burnley headquarters and at some of the Time Talk mobile phone stores.

A spokesman said jobs had been lost as a result of a review of its Time Talk business.

Today the firm refused to reveal exactly how many jobs had been lost, but Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said he had spoken to Time boss Tahir Mohsan who told him some of the staff to be made redundant were "seasonal workers."

Mr Evans said: "I have spoken to Tahir and he said four people had been made redundant in the computer sector and a further 15 jobs have gone in the Time Talk sector.

"But the rest of the jobs to go are seasonal. These are people who were taken on before Christmas when there was a peak and now they have been let go.

"I believe they worked for the firm for less than six months. I don't know how many there were.

"Time Computers is one of the major employers in the area and the government has got to make sure that the economic conditions are right for the firm to take on and sustain the workforce."

News of these latest job cuts is the third bombshell workers have had to deal with in the past two months.

In December, the firm confirmed it was in urgent refinancing talks with its bankers after a slump in the market.

And just four days later Time announced that 90 people were to be made redundant from their head office.

The jobs were lost from the Time Computers division of the group and the company blamed the slump in the home PC market -- but said it would try to re-employ staff in the mobile phone sector. In a statement on the latest job cuts, a spokesman for the firm said: "We can confirm that as a result of the Time Talk store reprofiling a small number of staff have been made redundant at stores and within our Burnley headquarters.

"We are providing as much support as possible to those seeking new employment. In fact within the Time Computers retail operation there are a significant number of vacancies and as a result we are undertaking an ongoing recruitment drive across the country."

Time Computers was started in a Blackburn corner shop in 1987 by consultant paediatrician Dr Tariq Mohammed and his teenage brother Tahir Mohsan who have become millionaires.