A meeting took place on Saturday in Barcelona Spain between representatives of the UGT trades union and the directors of Burberry after the company revealed that it was axing 250 jobs in the region.

However, the effects on Catalonia are said to be devastating, as companies such as Roca, Seat, Indo, Derbi, Vitri, Sony and Nissan have all announced staff reductions or divisional closures.

Camil Ros from the UGT added that this month alone, some five thousand workers were affected either by reduced working hours or job loss, whilst 15,000 jobs were affected in this way in December and 8,000 in November.

A few years back, Burberrys closed its main British factory and is now producing in China, with another UK plant expected to close and staff reductions to be made in the remaining two.