LANCASHIRE workers at BAE Systems have avoided 150 compulsory redundancies by voting to take a day’s unpaid holiday every month.

About 2,000 shop-floor workers voted on proposals to save jobs yesterday at a union meeting at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens.

It followed an announcement by the defence giant that it needed to reduce the workforce by 1,387 last September, of which 565 skilled manual workers jobs were at risk.

About 200 staff have taken voluntary redundancy while 215 jobs have been saved through workload changes, redeployment and moves to other parts of the business.

Some staff who left have taken up positions at other companies such as Rolls Royce and Aircelle in Burnley, union leaders said.

BAE bosses said about 1,000 jobs had been ‘mitigated’ or saved from compulsory redundancy out of 1,387.

Ian Wood, BAE Systems Samlesbury site director, said: “We have three bargaining groups under review – manual, professional and executive.

“We have three consultations running in parallel. With the action in Blackpool in the manual sector, the immediate risk of any compulsary redundancies for the manual population is subsiding as a consequence.

“There has been a level of maturity from the company and the trade union working hard on these issues when job losses were announced last September. We should be proud of this.”

Phil Entwistle, shop-floor convenor, said: “In the last two months we have looked at the employment retention scheme. Each employee will take an extra day’s unpaid holiday a month and this will avoid 150 compulsory job cuts.

“We also had people leaving when they reached 55, we had jobs fairs and some workers took severance and moved to Rolls Royce or Aircelle.”

Union member Alan Quinn said: “It’s superb and a weight off people’s shoulders. We showed what can be achieved.

"We are a progressive union and we have a forward-looking management. It will be reviewed in two years, but now we can get on with building aircraft.”