ABOUT 100 workers at a struggling Colchester printing company have been given the worst possible Christmas news – they are being laid off on December 24.

About 100 staff at Polestar’s two Colchester sites were told yesterday morning Christmas Eve would be their last day.

Office staff will be laid off a week later, on New Year’s Eve.

It is the final, bitter blow for workers who, two years ago, accepted a 10 per cent pay cut to keep its magazine printing plants open on the Severalls Business Park.

After hearing the news yesterday, one worker told the Gazette: “Basically, we’ve been treated like rubbish.

“They’ve kept us on to do the Christmas TV listings run and then they’ve dumped us.

“People aren’t happy because they have been messed about time and time again.

“Now we’ve got Christmas to look forward to – and no jobs in the new year.

“It’s not the easiest thing to get a new job these days, so I doubt many of us are looking forward to that.”

The worker, who asked not to be named, said many colleagues had expected bad news soon, but expected it to come next spring.

A workmate said: “This is what we’ve all been expecting for a long time now.

“I’m amazed I’ve lasted this long, to be honest.

“I won’t be sad to go but it’s the looking for a new job I don’t like the idea of.

“A lot of the guys have been using the time to re-train, so they can do something straight away. There are a few plasterers and driving instructors here, so that’s good news for them.”

Polestar employs 75 people in its binding plant and 30 more at its press and produces magazines such as Now Magazine, Angler’s Mail, Match of the Day, Doctor Who and Flight.

In the past, it has printed the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine, women’s mag, Best, and lads’ mag Nuts but that work was moved to other plants in Bicester, near Oxford, and Chantry, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Business at the Colchester plants had picked up since the summer thanks to a contract to print advertising magazines for the Aldi supermarket chain. The Aldi contract has since been completed.

Colchester MP Sir Bob Russell said: “This is desperately sad news for those who work for Polestar, and their families.

The timing could not be worse.

“Sadly, there continues to be a glut of print capacity in the UK.

“Advances in printing technology mean more can be printed on fewer sites with modern machinery.

“In a competitive market, the hard-nosed commercial decision has been taken to close the Colchester sites.

“That is a regrettable fact of market forces.”

Since workers accepted a pay cut in 2012, the company’s main M4000 press has been moved to Yorkshire, resulting in redundancy for most of the 80 Colchester workers who had run it, though some applied for jobs at the northern site.

As many as 90 workers were also put on notice of redundancy in May.

The Gazette asked Polestar to comment on the latest news, but no comment was forthcoming.