Vestas Wind Systems has dismissed 11 employees who took part in wildcat strikes following threats of the closure of the company's blades factory on the Isle of Wight.

The factory is under threat of closure because the 40-metre blades it makes can be manufactured cheaply in the US.

The Danish firm, which manufactures wind turbines, was considering converting the factory on the Isle of Wight to manufacture larger 44-metre blades, but following an announcement in April of 1,900 redundancies at the firm - mainly in the UK and Denmark - this decision was scrapped.

The firm currently employs 110 staff in the plant and claims that number is expected to increase to 150 by the end of the year, but this week, 11 employees staged a sit-in in the factory over the proposals.

A statement from Vestas read: "Vestas is now conducting the final consultations with employees. However the occupation currently taking place at the company's blade factory, constituting industrial action on the part of employees participating, is continuing to cause difficulties for Vestas in conducting these consultations in an orderly manner.

"Vestas has explained to the employees concerned the potential consequences of their actions if they were to refuse to discontinue their participation. Vestas therefore unfortunately saw no other choice than to dismiss the 11 employees."

Audrey Williams, partner at law firm Eversheds, said: "Understandably in recessionary times and with belts tightening, emotions surrounding factory closures can run high, particularly where the employees themselves still believe in the viability of the business and struggle to accept the harshness of a commercial decision from above.

"This week's dispute, in the form of a staged sit-in by workers producing wind turbines, is another manifestation of such worker frustration but also serves as a reminder that legal remedy does not always provide the best solution to a breakdown in employment relations.

"Proactive and effective dialogue between employers and employees, preferably in a well-planned and co-ordinated fashion, generally provides a much more effective platform for dispute resolution, if not at the start of a dispute then later on if the channels of communication are left open."

But she added: "The law is quite clear, that employees who engage in strike action without first following proper process, jeopardise their rights to claim unfair dismissal and ultimately, as here, risk becoming trespassers at their former place of work. But when the door of communication closes, entrenchment by the respective parties inevitably follows and rarely produces a satisfactory winner, regardless of legal rights and wrongs."