A UNION said tonight it expects 100 staff at Vodafone in Adderbury to lose their jobs.

About 850 staff who work at Pembroke House, in Banbury Business Park, Adderbury, near Banbury, were told the news today.

Vodafone said it is making 500 jobs redundant out of a 10,000 UK workforce. The Connect union believes about 170 jobs will go in Newbury and 100 at Adderbury. Details of other sites have not yet been confirmed.

Steve Thomas, Connect national officer at Vodafone, which is the union representing some staff at Adderbury, said it would be pushing for voluntary redundancies.

He said: “We will be urging the company to work with us to explore options around re-training and redeployment.

“Where redundancies are absolutely unavoidable, then we will be pushing the company to pursue a voluntary approach and to establish fair and transparent selection criteria.

“We will be working very closely with the company to ensure that our members are treated with respect during this difficult time and that a full and proper process of consultation is carried out”.

Kieron Mallon, Cherwell’s executive member for communications, said: “Any potential threat to jobs in Cherwell is a great concern to the council.

“Nothing has been confirmed yet — the job losses could be spread over the other sites.

“We don’t know how many jobs in Adderbury are under threat and we like everyone else are waiting for news from Vodafone.”

A spokesman for Vodafone said: “We are operating in a highly competitive market and need to concentrate on what our customers want.”