Workers at the troubled Fruit of the Loom plants across Co Donegal received further bad news yesterday when they were told that more than 700 staff are to be put on short time working with almost immediate effect.

Staff at the textile plants in Raphoe, Milford, Buncrana and Malin will begin a short working week on September 21st - a move which will almost halve the average weekly wage.

The news was relayed to senior shop stewards during talks with management at the company's Buncrana base.

The two hour meeting was attended by Fruit of the Loom's European President, Mr Felix Sulzberger, a number of senior shop stewards as well as management representatives, Mr Joe Mullin and local SIPTU representative, Mr Sean Reilly.

The news comes just a day after Tanaiste, Ms Harney left the north-west after promising to set up a jobs task force for the county whose unemployment figures are running at twice the national average.

Ms Harney is due to meet the Fruit of the Loom chief executive, Mr Bill Farley on Monday when it is expected that the full extent of the redundancies facing the region will be disclosed.

No formal decision is understood to have been taken yet in relation to the scale of job losses at the group's Irish operations although there are growing fears that up to 700 jobs at its T-shirt sewing plants will be lost.

Short-term working has been introduced periodically over the past couple of years in the Donegal and Derry plants to allow high stock levels to be run down.

Ms Harney has sought meetings with Government agencies to minimise the losses and negotiate acceptable redundancy terms.

Mr Farley and his senior management team will be weighing up the options for the plants over the coming days and will consult with local management. The 700 sewing jobs in the T-shirt operations have always been the most vulnerable and are likely to be transferred to a sister operation in Morocco where labour costs are substantially cheaper.