A MULTI-national electronics company is shedding 300 jobs at a North-East plant as it moves work to Eastern Europe.

LG Philips Displays, a joint venture by Dutch company Philips and Korean-based LG, will halt production of deflection yokes, a device fitted to television tubes, at its factory in Washington, Wearside, later this year.

The company plans to sub-contract the work to Belgian firm Punch International, which has a plant in the Slovak Republic - formerly part of Communist Czechoslovakia - close to an LG Philips Displays cathode ray tube factory.

The move is the latest example of a multi-national company moving manufacturing from Britain to a country where costs, particularly the wages bill, will be lower.

In a statement, the firm said: "The decision is based on the company's need to maintain a worldwide competitive cost position.''

The company will retain 120 jobs at Washington, which will concentrate on deflection yoke research and development.

In recent months, the firm has announced job losses in Holland and Austria and the switching of colour TV tube production from a plant in the US employing 1,217 people, to a new one in Mexico with 2,000 workers.

The union Amicus hopes to persuade the management to reduce the Washington job losses by moving workers to the firm's TV tube plant at Durham.

Regional organiser Carol McFarlane said: "It is very bad news. Work has been transferring to Slovakia for a number of years and the workforce was informed three years ago that this base would be concentrating more on research and development with a small amount of manufacturing.

"We can't compete with the labour rates of Slovakia. For all that we have known about it, it is still devastating.

"We are entering into some meaningful consultation with the company with a view to reducing the redundancy numbers.''

Amicus regional secretary Davey Hall said: "It is extremely bad news. It is another bad hit for North-East manufacturing.

"They have been a good employer, and the job losses will have a big impact on many families in the area.''

The company says the first jobs will go in the summer and that it is offering counselling and help finding other jobs.

Last year, Sanyo closed its microwave oven factories at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, and Thornaby, near Middlesbrough, with the loss of 315 jobs, saying the plants were unviable.