DIY giant B&Q is to shed up to 14 staff after moving to axe the night shift at a large Hampshire store.

Angry staff of the Hedge End branch contacted the Daily Echo to complain the move would see them on the job market just days before Christmas.

The Chandler’s Ford-based retailer, which reported six-month profits up 79 per cent to £195m earlier this year thanks to a trend to “improve not move”, said job losses would be kept to a minimum.

One affected Hedge End worker, who did not want to be named, said: “B&Q say they go out of their way to employ older people but 95 per cent of the people on this shift are over 40 and some are in their 50s and 60s.

“We have been offered temporary 20-hour contracts but they have no date on them meaning they could be withdrawn tomorrow.

“It will hit us on December 2, just in time for Christmas – Happy Christmas to us all. It could not have been timed worse.”

A B&Q spokesman said: “We are proposing to make some changes to the way we staff our Hedge End store. This is not a cost saving exercise but a rescheduling proposal where we are actually investing additional staff hours into the store, albeit at different times, to ensure we have the right people at the right place at the right time to enable us to better serve our customers when they need us most.

“Our priority is to safeguard jobs for our colleagues who are affected and we’ll be doing everything we can to ensure that we find them alternative roles and if any redundancies result it will be a very last resort.”