HUNDREDS of workers at a Flintshire factory are worried their jobs could be axed.

Staff at ConvaTec UK on Deeside Industrial Park are fearing the worst after they were told agency work had been cut and work and equipment was being sent to a factory in the Dominican Republic.

It has now been claimed staff at the factory, which employs 500 people, were behind the mysterious ‘We Deserve Better’ signs on the roundabout on the approach to Zone Two of the park.

But the firm’s management has said despite the fears there were no scheduled job losses and that business was improving.

One ConvaTec employee, who did not want to be named, said: “There are a lot of worried people.”

About 100 workers were offered voluntary redundancy from the factory in January.

A newsletter circulated by the UNITE union is urging the company to commit to Deeside instead of sending work abroad.

Robbie Heginbotham, the company’s vice-president of manufacturing in the UK, said he believed the site was performing well and had just secured new product lines.

He said: “We have released about 20 agency staff in the last few weeks and we are down to about 30. There has been no change since the voluntary redundancies about six months ago. The situation with the Dominican Republic has been well documented.

“There is a bit of a campaign with UNITE.”

Connah's Quay county councillor Aaron Shotton said any possible job losses at the factory would be a great concern.