US hard-disk drive manufacturer Seagate Technology will lay off more than 2,000 Chinese workers as it shutters a factory in eastern China, reports said Saturday, prompting anger among employees.

The factory, one of two operated by Seagate in China, is based in Suzhou city in eastern Jiangsu province, and was established in 2004.

Factory workers received notice of its impending closure last Saturday, and were told they would lose their jobs in just over a week's time, state-funded digital news outlet the Paper cited employees as saying.

"At the very least, the company should hold a meeting with us workers. They should make clear to us how compensation will be dealt with, at what point wages will be cut off, and whether the company is being relocated or shut down," one disgruntled laid-off worker told the Paper.

The decision to close the factory was made in order to "decrease the scale of Seagate's global production so as to better adapt to current and future market demands", the Paper cited an internal company memo as saying.

It cited workers as saying that large-scale layoffs in Suzhou had been occurring since February, with a number of those incensed by the cuts staging a small strike in December.

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SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY