Workers at a pottery fear they are facing redundancies and a four-day week.

Job losses and short-time working have been rumoured at Wade Ceramics in Burslem, since its owner warned last month it was looking to cut costs.

Leeds-based Beauford also said it was looking for savings at another subsidiary in the city - Allied Insulators in Milton - and there may be job losses.

Today, a spokesman at Wade said: ‘‘At the moment, a range of issues are under discussion with CATU. I cannot comment while those discussions are taking place.’’

CATU general secretary Geoff Bagnall said: ‘‘We are currently in discussions with the company over a whole range of matters affecting the shopfloor. Things are at a delicate stage and so I can say no more than that.’’

But at the company’s Hilltop factory in Westport Street one worker Denise Gibbons, a fetler sponger, said there had been talk that workers will be on a four-day week from Monday.

She said: ‘‘There have been no orders coming in. They have been asking for volunteers to go.’’
And glaze machine operator Rosemarie Tinsley said the workers have been told the factory is ‘‘over-producing’’.

In a statement to the Stock Exchange last month, Beauford, the whisky flagon manufacturing side of Wade’s business, has been suffering because of economic problems in the Far East.

Domestic whisky producers have cut back on orders as their own sales have slumped in important markets in Asia.

The company employs about 700 people at its three factories in Burslem. It is believed almost 60 jobs could go across the three sites.