JUST days before an announcement naming the first workers to be made redundant at Dyson, it has emerged the number who will receive a payout has dropped from 800 to 590.

The company, which is moving its vacuum cleaner production from Malmesbury to Malaysia, refused to explain exactly why the figure had changed.

But workers say it is because employees are leaving in droves because moral is so low.

"People are leaving left, right and centre," said stock controller Sam Baldry, who has applied for voluntary redundancy.

"All the people that have left Dyson have done them a favour."

A Dyson spokeswoman said yesterday: "It is probable that the redundancy figure will reduce further due to the steps we are taking to retrain and redeploy people elsewhere within Dyson."

She said that no further comment would be made on the job cuts until its period of consultation with staff finished at the end of the month.

She added that James Dyson, who has made millions from his revolutionary vacuum cleaners, would not answer any questions on the job losses until the consultation was over.

On Tuesday, a television documentary which showed footage in the Malaysian town of Johor Bahru where the Dyson factory is based, was screened along with interviews with the local workforce.

Dyson has repeatedly refused to give the Gazette any information about its Malaysian operation and criticised HTV for filming in the city while the redundancy consultation was still continuing. Dyson also claimed that its staff in Malaysia would be paid considerably more than the average wage and more than the Malaysian unions claim people need to ensure they have a decent living.

The documentary's producers deny this claim, saying that a Malaysian they interviewed was quoted just over half what the Malaysian TUC say is a decent wage. It has been reported that Malaysian workers are paid as little as 60p an hour.

The first wave of redundancies in Malmesbury will be announced on Monday with those taking voluntary redundancy being the first to go.

A spokesman said: "Those that requested to leave will be informed on May 20 and will then work out their notice period. They will then receive their full redundancy package."

Peter Dommett, 36, who lives with his uncle and aunt, Ian and Denise Orr, at Rudloe, near Corsham, is one of those looking to take voluntary redundancy.

"They have offered us a week and a half's pay for every year we have been here, plus £1,000," said Mr Dommett, who works in the mould factory and has been at Dyson for three years.

"Everyone has come to the conclusion this is the final offer. It is as good as we are going to get, and we have accepted it."

MP James Gray challenged Junior Treasury Minister Paul Boateng to explain why Dyson had decided to make so many people redundant three years after Chancellor Gordon Brown opened the expanded Dyson factory in Tetbury Hill.