Nestl today vowed to try to find more casual work for the 90 workers who face being laid off when work on the firm's new chocolate-covered pretzel Flipz stops for an eight-week break.

And they insisted the production break did not mean Flipz was a flop - stressing it was selling well and in some cases outselling KitKat.

The jobs pledge follows calls to the Evening Press from workers on contract until June 12 who say they were told there would be work at the York plant until September.

Nestl public affairs manager Hilary Parsons today said: "A few weeks ago we did feel we could avoid the present situation and there was reference to September.

"But there was no contractual agreement.

"We are making a considerable effort to place these people in alternative casual work and discussions are taking place. We are doing what we can to see if we can find alternative casual work."

George Tutill, chief shop steward for the GMB Union at Nestl, confirmed that the 90 Flipz workers due to be laid off were told that they would be employed until September.

He planned to meet the management today to persuade them to keep the workers on. "By the end of June or beginning of July, we would normally take on an extra 200 seasonally to cope with the coming Christmas demand for other product lines.

"There is no reason why they couldn't be taken on for that task. They were employed by the factory as a whole rather than just to do the specific task of working on Flipz.

"The problem we now face is how to mark time for the three weeks before the seasonal surge."

It was a case he knew the management would be prepared to discuss reasonably. "No one here is in the business of gratuitously hiring and firing," he said.

Nestl's promise follows yesterday's story in the Evening Press which exclusively revealed that 90 workers were to be laid off when production on Flipz stops for eight weeks.

The company said it needed to stop work on the product - the York factory's biggest new launch since the Yorkie 20 years ago - until it could measure what its natural market was. It plans to resume making Flipz in August, but with a scaled-down staff from 130 to 45.

Nestl has just embarked on a £3 million marketing drive for the product - including a new TV campaign.

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