The discount and household goods firm admitted jobs at its stores across Northamptonshire, which include ones in Gold Street and the Weston Favell Shopping Centre may go after Christmas as it sheds up to 6,000 workers nationwide.

Although Wilkinsons has said the cuts would affect only some staff, workers from two separate stores in Northamptonshire have contacted the Chronicle & Echo after receiving letters from the GMB Union implying their jobs are at risk.

The letter claims that Wilkinson's "do not care about your families" and that "the jobs will affect your store".

One man who works in the Gold Street shop and asked not to be named, said: "I don't know what to think at the moment. The company is telling me one thing in briefings and this letter is telling me another.

"How are you supposed to plan for the future with all this going on? If my job is going then I at least need to know when."

Another man, who is a shelf stacker at the store in Rushden, said: "It's very confusing and upsetting. How I'm going to have a nice family Christmas with this hanging over my head is beyond me."

A spokeswoman for Wilkinson's said the store was laying off some staff who work in their stores' departments as part of long-term plans to make the firm more efficient and she denied the move was to do with the credit crunch.

She also said staff should have been given thorough briefings which are tailored to their position in the company, adding the number of redundancies could be much less than 6,000.

She added: "The GMB may think we do not care about workers' families but that is their view and certainly not ours."

Peggy Blyth, an organiser for the GMB, blamed Wilkinson's for needlessly causing worry for its staff.

She said: "They don't even know if the new system which is making the job cuts necessary is going to work so announcing these cuts this far ahead will cause concern."