ABOUT 1,000 workers were today fearing for their future after the Reality catalogue services business was sold to the multi-millionaire Barclay brothers.

More than 800 people work at Reality's customer services call centre at Kingsway, Burnley, and over 100 are employed at its delivery depot in Davyfield Road, Blackburn.

The £540million sale of the home catalogue business by Great Universal Stores has yet to be cleared by the Government's Competitions Commission but union USDAW has already expressed concern that the merger could cause job losses.

Reality's new owners today said the consolidation of the dwindling home catalogue business would save more jobs than it cost.

But staff arriving at Reality in Burnley today said they had been kept in the dark about the sale of the business. Susan Heywood, from the Rosehill area of Burnley, said: "Some people had a meeting late yesterday afternoon, but we do not know a lot."

Ann Wainman, of Barden Lane, Burnley, said: "We only heard about it on the news last night."

Jo Tinsley said: "People will be furious, there's just no job security at this place."

Another 31-year-old woman from Burnley who did not want to be named said: "To be quite honest we have not been told a thing, it feels as though we are being kept in the dark. Some people went into a meeting yesterday and told me about it."

USDAW General Secretary Bill Connor said the union was seeking urgent talks with the new owners of the Reality business.

"Our primary concern is the job security of our members," he said. "We are seeking early talks to find out more about the proposed deal and the implications it may have on jobs."

Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, who are among the richest men in Britain, are set to merge GUS's mail-order arm with their Littlewood business. They also own London Ritz hotel and newspapers including The Scotsman and The Business.

Reality was launched as a business unit in 2000 by the then Great Universal Stores. It will become part of the Barclays' March UK operation.

A spokesman said it was "too early to say" whether the transaction would result in job cuts among the nearly 17,500 employees.

But Littlewood and March UK chairman David Simons said I am utterly convinced that there will be more jobs saved from the transaction than would be lost."

Mr Simons said he had already written to the Office of Fair Trading regarding the tie-up and would be discussing the proposals with the unions and employees.

In addition to work for the GUS group, Reality provides a range of customer care and logistics services to blue-chip companies such as Readers' Digest, QVC, Barclaycard, MBNA and Britannia Music.

Argos, part of the GUS group, has signed contracts with March UK to continue home delivery and other services for up to three years.

GUS chief executive John Pearce said: "Since 2000, we have been streamlining GUS to focus on fewer businesses which operate in growth markets. The sale of our home shopping and Reality operations is the natural evolution of this process and marks a further step in the transformation of the group."