Fruit of the Loom's 3,500 employees returned to work yesterday in a blaze of publicity, with everyone anxious about their jobs.

Their annual three-week holiday was marred by widespread speculation about their future.

After their shift ended, the machinists at Fruit of The Loom's Buncrana plant in Donegal said they were "very worried" about their jobs and most felt they were being "kept in the dark".

One worker, Ms Maisie Grant, who has worked for the McCarter family for 57 years said the atmosphere in the plant was tense.

"I hope that what we think will happen doesn't happen. The workers don't want to lose Mr Willie McCarter. His family started these plants and there is deep anger at what is happening," she said.

News that the US multinational had served redundancy notices to Mr McCarter, his brother Mr John McCarter and finance director, Mr Seamus McEleney, came as a great shock to the workforce. Most learned of the threatened redundancies through the media and, as they were on holidays, were unable to seek reassurances from the company about their jobs.

SIPTU has called a meeting with the workforce for this afternoon, where it is expected to reiterate assurances it received from Fruit of the Loom's senior European executive, Mr Bernhard Hanson.

Mr Hanson yesterday wrote to the company's shop stewards stressing that there would be no return to short-time working at least for the rest of the year and that the company continues to perform strongly.

One shop steward, Mrs Bridie Burns, said SIPTU accepts that the jobs were safe in the short to medium term.

"It will to be very difficult for employees until this dispute is resolved. People have mortgages and have been upset by some of the speculation about possible job losses.

"We have to accept what the company has told us. There is enough concern among the workers at the moment without adding to it," she said.

Because of the ongoing dispute between the company and its directors, the company is precluded from talking directly to the workers about its future plans for the Donegal and Derry plants.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes negotiations are continuing between the directors and Fruit of the Loom in a bid to resolve the dispute before it goes to court.

One worker said: "The employees, while working for Fruit of the Loom, still see themselves as working for the McCarter family. The McCarters are viewed in the locality as the backbone of the business. And while Mr Andy McCarter is expected to become the senior Irish executive, the workers are upset by what is happening.

The 650 workers at the sewing plant in Buncrana come from within a 20-mile radius. The majority are young women between 25 and 30 and the wage bill from the Fruit of the Loom plants runs to over £25 million annually.

The company in many cases employs several people from the same family with some of the older workers having worked in the WP McCarter factory taken over by Fruit of the Loom in 1976.