Workers were told of the redundancies yesterday which are understood to involve 15 workers and three management staff.

Bradken's corporate marketing manager Michelle Fragar said the company would not comment on the sackings as the company's chief executive Brian Hodges was out of the country.

This is the second spate of redundancies at the Youngtown steel foundry within the past 12 months.

The company cut 33 jobs from its 102-strong workforce last July.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Tasmanian secretary John Short said the latest set of redundancies seemed to be linked to a continuing downturn in mining industry.

Bradken was a major supplier of mining machinery manufacturer Caterpillar, who itself axed 200 jobs last year.

``The company (Bradken) has been under a bit of pressure for at least a couple of years now, and there have been already been job losses,'' Mr Short said.

``We will do what we can to make sure the workers get all their entitlements and get what is due to them.''