The threat of strike action at Coventry-based telecommunications firm Marconi has eased after the company agreed to take action to avoid compulsory redundancies.

Unions had threatened to hold a ballot on industrial action at the end of November if the company nominated workers for redundancy.

But Marconi has said it will delay a decision on shedding jobs.

The company will also widen voluntary redundancy to any employee that wants it.

7,000 jobs axed

Roger Jeary from the engineers' union Amicus says his workers have fully co-operated with attempts to save Marconi:

"It's something like 7,000 jobs going out of the company in the U.K. and that's all been done on a voluntary basis.

"Now, of course, we're reaching the end, we hope, of restructuring."

"And, we hope, these extra efforts by the company will achieve the final outcome without the need for compulsion."

�3bn debts

At the end of August the troubled firm had announced it was cutting 1,000 jobs, with the hope that most would be voluntary redundancies.

The company, formerly the defence firm GEC, is struggling with debts of �3bn.

It tried to turn itself into a global telecommunications specialist through a costly acquisition spree during the late 1990s.

But the technology and telecoms downturn came just as the company completed its makeover, leaving Marconi in deep financial trouble.