HUNDREDS of workers have today been sent notices telling them their jobs are at risk as Barnet Council seeks to save millions of pounds.

The at risk of redundancy letters have been sent to employees across all departments, with around 350 posts set to be lost as part of this year's budget.

Now hundreds of employees face an uncertain Christmas period while a formal six-week consultation period takes place.

John Burgess, the head of the Barnet branch of Unison, the public sector union which represents half of the 4,000 council employees, said there are feelings of “fear and shock” among staff.

He added: “This will certainly ruin a lot of people's Christmases. Children's services in particular looks like it will be the worst cut as a lot of those services are maintained through grants.

“This is the result of the Comprehensive Spending Review people were waiting for, but a lot of people had buried their heads in the sand and hoped it wouldn't come.

“We will certainly be fighting to try and minimise these job losses. At the moment people look around and they don't know where they will go if they lose their jobs.”

Mr Burgess said the One Barnet programme which is being brought in by the council would also see more posts cut and posed a “threat” to the future of public services in the borough.

He added: “We have, for the first time in my eight-year tenure here, entered into a trades dispute with the council.

“If we don't get a satisfactory result from our meeting next week with the chief executive (Nick Walkley) we will be balloting members on what further action to take.

“If that is approved you could be seeing staff walkouts as early as January. We will fight tooth and nail to protect our services.