Months of negotiations came to an end on Wednesday when the final redundancy figures at AgustaWestland were announced.

There will be a total of 450 redundancies, 410 of them being labelled as "voluntary redundancies".

Whilst 40 people will lose their jobs involuntarily, the figure is much lower than first expected. None of the 40 redundancies will come from the shop floor.

It was in January this year that Westland personnel were summoned to a mass-meeting to hear about a restructuring package.

What they heard was grim news as 600 or so jobs were predicted to go in Yeovil alone.

Negotiations involving the company and workforce representatives commenced, with the outcome being presented this week.

One hundred jobs have been saved through redeployment/retraining and outsourcing.

Seventy staff will be redeployed within the company while another 30 will continue to work at Westland, although their pay cheque will come from an agency instead of Westland itself.

Union convenor Joe Conway said, from a shop floor point of view, that he was delighted to have achieved zero compulsory redundancies, praising the workforce and the company for the part they had played.

"It is credit to both sides that we managed to get through this without any fall-outs," he said.

Mr Conway believes that the number of voluntary redundancies was partly achieved through Rapid Response Money from the government, which offered people a chance to retrain for other professions.

Another reason was the successful pension scheme and a guarantee that anybody opting for voluntary redundancy would get at least a £5,000 pay off.

Westland's director of public affairs, David Bath, said the restructuring programme together with a drive for efficiency improvements would enable the company to meet the demands of competitive markets abroad and at home.

Yeovil MP David Laws commented by saying his thoughts were with those who had lost their jobs, and their families.

"Although it will be little compensation for those affected by today's announcement, the management and unions at Westland deserve considerable praise for the way in which they have managed to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies," Mr Laws added.