“I phoned him after getting no satisfaction from the Dundee management or the company’s press officer, but discovered he is on annual leave.

“I stand by my comments before, that the best way to quell speculation is to speak about it and give a definitive answer.”

Mr McGovern said he was “extremely worried” about the possibility of large-scale job losses and said he would challenge any decision to move production capacity to Hungary.

Attempts to get a guarantee about the safety of the 800 permanent jobs in Dundee have so far been unsuccessful.

NCR has refused to comment on claims from within the company that as many as 300 jobs will have to go at its Dundee factory next year.

Concern has been mounting following the opening of a manufacturing plant in Hungary, where labour costs are significantly lower than in the UK.

Already, production in Dundee has been affected by the new factory, ostensibly set up to produce bank machines for Eastern Europe and Russia.

By the end of the year, it is believed that around 28,000 ATMs will have been built in Dundee — well down on the peak years. At the same time, it is understood that around 12,000 ATMs are now being made in Hungary.

An NCR employee, who does not want to be named, has calculated that projected production figures for Dundee in 2007 of 16,000 ATMs — a figure he says was passed from management to union representatives — could mean the loss of almost half the jobs at NCR’s Wester Gourdie factory.

It is understood that NCR will make around the same total number of ATMs for the European market next year as in 2006, but that more production will be switched from Dundee to Hungary.

The NCR insider says many more jobs could follow amongst firms which rely on NCR for much of their work.

NCR was asked to comment on the claims, but a spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny them.

As it has done previously when confronted with forecasts of jobs losses, NCR said it builds bank machines to order and the number of employees consequently changes to match demand.

The spokeswoman said the company’s 2007 schedule was “commercially confidential”. Neither could NCR confirm that it had passed on information to union representatives.

She added, “Production figures are revised constantly in response to demand. NCR meets regularly with union representatives and employees and can’t disclose what goes on at these meetings.”

Just five days ago, NCR was forced to deny rumours that two-thirds of the firm's operations in Dundee would be moved to its new plant in Hungary. But it failed to give an assurance to staff that their jobs were safe.