More than 1,000 jobs are to be shed at the Bombardier aircraft manufacturer this year in Belfast, a union leader said.

The Canadian-owned firm plans to complete its 1,080 redundancy programme this year instead of next.

The aerospace company said in February it was axing the posts – about a fifth of its Northern Ireland workforce – over two years as part of global restructuring.

Davy Thompson, Unite regional coordinating officer, said: “Bombardier’s announcement will mean that all 1,080 redundancies planned over a two-year period will now happen in the current year; 200 more workers will receive redundancy in the months to come.

“This decision has been made against a backdrop where the company’s corporate management are seeking an additional 7,500 job losses globally.

“While we are disappointed at the news we recognise that it reflects the desire of local management to sustain more operations in Belfast for the long-term.”

He said the UK Government must provide special globalisation adjustment funding to support Northern Ireland workers affected by large-scale redundancies.

“Elsewhere in Europe, workforces impacted by redundancy decisions affecting more than 500 workers are eligible to draw down funding for retraining, re-skilling and local economic development from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF).

“In the eight years to the end of 2014, €561m was drawn down for 134 applications under this fund but the UK government has never drawn down a penny.

“The Government claims that the fund does not represent good ‘value-for-money’ and that making an application might threaten the UK’s rebate.”