Union member employees at the troubled Chapel-en-le-Frith manufacturer were balloted over whether to agree to the extra hours, with 264 voting against the proposal, and 217 voting for it.

Some staff, who have now been told that there will be another ballot on May 2, said that they felt that they were being forced into voting for the company's proposals.

One employee, who did not want to be named, said: "There is a lot of intimidation going on. It is shocking really.

"We had a union vote over whether to accept the company's proposal for more working hours and less pay and the vote went against the company by 47 votes. Everything was fair and above board and everyone voted democratically.

"What they (the company) are saying now is that because the vote went against the company, they want another ballot, and over the next three weeks there are going to be more discussions.

"It just seems as though they want the vote to keep going and going until they get the vote they want.

"They are trying to scare people. People have been in measuring the machinery up to take it out. It is just scaremongering tactics against the employees.

"We feel there is intimidation by the company on the employees to get a 'yes' vote."

He added: "There is only supposed to be 30 redundancies now so they seem to have backed down with that. But with the redundancies, if we vote yes, those that go will get the full redundancy package and if we vote no, the feeling is they will get only what the Government pay, which works out at roughly half."

The Advertiser revealed last month that employees at the brake lining factory had been told parts of the company's business would be moved to other sites if they didn't agree to working extra hours for no additional pay.

Just days later, 60 job losses were announced and staff at the site are facing a bleak future.

No-one from Federal Mogul or the T&G Union were available for comment as the Advertiser went to press.