Australia-400 Meat workers to lose jobs.

A TOTAL of 400 people will lose their jobs early next month with the closure of a western Sydney meat processing plant, their union says.

Hans Continental Smallgoods, which has three plants in Queensland, one in Victoria and one in NSW at Blacktown in Sydney’s west, was placed into voluntary administration by its Japanese owners, Japanese Tobacco, last November.

Patricia Fernandez from the Meat Industry Employees’ Union said a rival meat processor, Primo Smallgoods, had bought the company’s sites at Wacol and Colmslie in Queensland, but was not interested in purchasing the Blacktown site.

With no other serious buyer emerging, the Blacktown site is set to close early next month.

Ms Fernandez said 10 of 400 staff who were on individual contracts would not be eligible for a single cent of redundancy pay.

"We’re told the contractual arrangement did not give rise to them receiving severance payments," Ms Fernandez said.

"Some of them have been there well over 10 years."

Most of the other workers at the Blacktown plant will receive a redundancy payout under enterprise agreements negotiated by the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union.