Union leaders at Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff have said they expect to be told on Monday that more than half the yard's remaining workforce is to be cut.

The statement follows talks between unions and the Industry Minister and east Belfast assembly member, Sir Reg Empey, on Friday.

It is thought that more than half of the 400-strong workforce are to lose their jobs early in the new year.

Harland and Wolff has, so far, refused to comment on the news of the lay-offs, which was broken by the BBC on Wednesday.

The move will leave little more than a skeleton workforce at the yard.

Sir Reg Empey is concerned at job losses

In recent years Harlands has limped from crisis to crisis, shrinking with every one.

Just over four months ago, it put together a rescue plan that was expected to secure close to 400 jobs in the short term - with employment expected to grow next year.

In March, the company announced that it was to lay off another 140 staff following a raft of redundancies over the last few years.

Harlands' management had placed their hopes of stopping the business closing altogether on a restructuring plan that involved the redevelopment of some of its land.

The company had been preparing to issue redundancy warning notices to the yard's remaining workers in case the recovery plan was not accepted.

But once again the work is running out - and that rescue plan has so far failed to deliver new orders.

As a result, more than 200 workers are soon expected to get formal warning of redundancy.

Further losses

The news of the job losses on Wednesday came on top of an announcement by telecommunications firm Nortel that it was cutting a further 200 jobs at its Monkstown plant in County Antrim.

The job losses bring to 800 the number of redundancies announced in the province in less than a week.

Nortel has been haemorrhaging jobs since the beginning of last year.

The announcement will take the current workforce at the Monkstown factory down to 780 from a peak of over 2,000.

Eighty of the jobs are to go in the company's operations division and 120 positions will be cut from the research and development department, which is central to the firm's future success.

Sir Reg Empey is to call a forum of local representatives next week to discuss what, if anything, might be done.