YORK has been dealt a new employment blow after one of the city’s major companies revealed it is cutting about 25 jobs at part of its operation.

The positions will be lost at Huntington-based Portastor after its parent firm, the Shepherd Group, took the decision in the midst of falling orders and gloomy trading predictions as the economy tries to clamber out of recession.

It means the 150-strong workforce at the New Lane plant, which makes specially-designed buildings to house electronic equipment for oil, gas, rail and power firms, will be sliced by a sixth, with a consultation period having now been launched with unions.

It comes after 101 redundancies were made in two separate waves of job cuts last year at Portastor’s sister company Portakabin, which also has its headquarters at the Huntington complex, because of difficult trading conditions.

That tally would have been worse but for the actions of 225 workers on the firm’s shop floor, who chose to adopt a short-time working programme which meant a drop in their weekly wage.

A company spokesman said: “Regrettably, a reduced order intake and no indication of an improved position for some time necessitates the loss of around 25 positions at Portastor.

“Considerable efforts have already been made to mitigate the effects of this downturn, which reflects a general decline in UK and overseas markets, but some restructuring and reorganisation is now needed to safeguard the long-term prospects of the business and the majority of employees.

“A consultation period began on July 28 which may lead to redundancies. During this period, all options will be considered with those potentially affected, who will have the opportunity to be considered for any other vacancies which may exist within the Shepherd Group.”

The York-based Shepherd Group employs more than 3,000 people, with about half of those based in the city and the surrounding area, and Ian Williams, director of business representation and policy at Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “This is no reflection on the quality of the product or the workforce, it is simply due to the downturn in the market.

“It is obviously an extremely disappointing and worrying time for the workers involved because while we can talk about numbers of job losses, it is real people who matter.

“Fortunately, we have just seen an improvement in the unemployment figures in York and North Yorkshire and an increase in vacancies being offered by Job Centres, so it is a sign there are employment opportunities available for those affected.”

The Unite union said it was participating in the consultation process and did not wish to comment at this point.