Top York construction company Shepherd has laid off about 20 employees despite its success in landing a series of prestigious multi-million pound contracts, according to one of the affected workers.

The employee, who did not wish to be named, said the lay-offs happened after the completion of York's multi-million pound McArthurGlen designer outlet, where the company had carried out some of the work.

Though the employee had been working at Shepherd for over 10 years, he claimed some of those who had been laid off had been with the company for over 20 years.

He was upset because he had been laid off for four weeks, and feared losing his redundancy money if he tried to seek other work.

He saw no prospect of returning to work at Shepherd.

"I would rather I was told now: 'We have no work for you and we're making you redundant'," he said.

"Surely they should be thinking of their long-term employees."

Shepherd has recently won the contract for the £22.6 million Freeport Designer Outlet Village in Glasshoughton, Castleford, and a £15.4 million contract to update the British Aerospace complex at Brough.

A company spokeswoman said: "We confirm that we have had to lay off a small number of men due to a temporary shortage of work. As a long-established, successful company, Shepherd is committed to bidding and winning work and such temporary situations are due to the nature of contracting.

"The contract at Glasshoughton is in its very early stages, and we are and will continue to be re-deploying men to this site as work progresses."

The company began work in September on an £8 million contract to build shops and a 500-space multi-storey car park in Burnley, and recently negotiated a £3.5 million design and build contract for the second phase of Centurion Park, Tamworth.

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