MOTOROLA has admitted that part of its plan to shed hundreds of jobs in Swindon is likely to involve the closure of two of its four sites in the town.

The fresh revelations come amid a claim from a shopfloor worker that the jobless total could be higher than originally forecast.

The mobile phone company only confirmed the plans to close its administrative sections at Elgin and Blagrove after the Evening Advertiser received a tip-off from a member of staff.

Now, with morale dipping further every day, questions are being asked by union leaders about the future of the firm's operations in the town.

The Advertiser revealed on Thursday how the town is due to shoulder 500 of the 2,000 worldwide redundancies announced earlier this month, with 800 going in the UK as a whole.

This follows the loss of 550 jobs at the plant earlier this year.

But the member of staff who called the Adver offices yesterday, who asked not to be named, said his colleagues on the shop floor at Groundwell were told that 1,100 jobs would be slashed across the country, with 834 redundancies in Swindon.

The staff member said: "The reason for all these problems is not that the work isn't there, but that none of it is coming to Swindon.

"We're just twiddling our thumbs here waiting for something to do because they are outsourcing the work abroad to get cheaper labour.

"They say it's because we're not making any profits but they're getting boards in from other countries that we used to make.

"I can see them stopping manufacture completely at Groundwell and it just being research and development soon because they've already closed five lines and they're talking about closing another two.

"The thing that I don't like is that they don't give us the full picture at all we always find out too late."

If the worker is right, it will mean 550 job losses on the shop floor, where just 1,700 work, and 284 office-based job losses.

Motorola today denied those figures were accurate, but confessed that it was likely to cease renting Euro Park at Blagrove and Maple at Elgin to cut costs.

Motorola spokesman Mark Durrant, who promised on Thursday that the firm was committed to keeping open its operations in Swindon, said: "Part of the proposal we've put to the employers is that we will consolidate our sites on to the two we own at Groundwell and Blagrove.

"It clearly makes sense to move our workers to those sites as a way of reducing our costs, but we are not closing the businesses that operate there."

On the job losses quoted by the member of staff, he said: "I have no idea where those figures have come from."

The union representing Motorola workers said it was constantly kept in the dark about the firm's plans and relied on the media to find out what is happening.

Spokesman, Ken Penton, said: "Motorola's whole approach is one of secrecy, which only increases suspicion. They won't talk to us at all, they won't talk to the media properly and I suspect they don't talk to their staff properly.

"Under the sham of consultation, they tell people after the event what is going on and we consider it quite ignorant.

"If these new figures are correct, it is terrible news for the UK and devastating news for Swindon. The speed of reduction of staff at this plant is deeply worrying and if they keep going there won't be a plant left at all."