Baiada Poultry has taken the boning knife to almost 60 staff just two days after grabbing control of Bartters, reports Area News.

In a move that has sent shockwaves through Griffith's biggest workplace, Baiada's flood of redundancies has virtually wiped out the company's McWilliams Road site.

The worst area hit was maintenance, with electricians, fitters and turners, welders, fridge mechanics, engineers and trades assistants among those told by the new management they were surplus to requirements.

A number of administration staff were also laid off, including two from the human resources sector. Only a handful of processing staff were affected.

Baiada general manager, John Camilleri, who sent senior managers to deliver the news yesterday (30 July), would not comment to Area News on the move.

Staff were called in one by one to be told the news, sources said.

Vince Centofanti, who has worked as an electrician with the company for 32 years, said the timing of the decision was "crazy".

"It's traditionally a given that this mob outsource everything but you would have thought they'd have a look around for a few months before making such massive redundancies," Mr Centofanti said.

"They went to the Beresfield site and cleaned it out on the Tuesday then did the same here the next day.

"It was disgusting and a lot of people are very, very bitter."

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union organiser, Chip Eling, said while axed employees had received all their entitlements, the redundancies could have been handled better.

Staff were told about lunchtime that some would be made redundant but then had to wait around for hours to see who would be, before those affected were called in one by one to receive their paperwork.

"It certainly could have been handled a lot better," Mr Eling said. "It's a particularly bad time for people to be going out into the labour market with the global and local economies the way they are."

Our Future is Local chairman, Paul Pierotti, told Area News that the news would have a "snowball effect" on the local economy.

"Something like this is absolutely devastating and there really isn't this number of jobs out there for these people with very specific skills," Mr Pierotti said.

"It couldn't have happened at a worse time and we really feel for these people and their families, many of whom have massive loans and debts."