WORKERS at a redundancy-threatened contact lens company were told it was doing well just days before the jobs bombshell was dropped, it emerged today.

As revealed by the Daily Echo last week, hundreds of workers at Chandler's Ford-based Ocular Sciences are facing the prospect of being thrown on the dole queue in the new year.

One worker, who declined to be named, said she first knew about the proposed job cuts when she read it about in the Daily Echo.

She added: "What a shock to read the Echo and find out I might be out of a job.

"At our company party on December 7 we were all told how well Ocular was doing.

"They were even handing out application forms for internal jobs on Wednesday."

Ocular employs 1,400 workers at its sites at Chandler's Ford, Romsey and Fareham, and has a total staff of 4,000 worldwide.

Instead of looking forward to Christmas, workers were facing an uncertain future as briefing meetings with staff continued this week.

An Ocular Sciences UK spokesman says that the San Francisco-based Ocular Sciences Inc is restructuring its manufacturing organisation.

The company will be communicating its plans to employees as soon as practicable in the new year.

The spokesman: "At the moment we cannot put a figure as to how many people will be affected by this decision."