The United Services Union said forced terminations are being rolled out before Christmas and one job would go from each depot in Tamworth, Narrabri and Inverell.

USU general secretary Graeme Kelly slammed the timing as heartless.

“How incredibly insensitive can management at Essential Energy be if they think that it is acceptable behaviour to ring workers just weeks before Christmas to tell them that ... they’ve no longer got a job,” he said.

But Essential Energy CEO John Cleland said “rumours about future workforce reductions and depot closures are speculation”. It’s understood 36 workers will be handed redundancies, the first of 600 jobs the company plans to shed by 2018.