Unions in Swaziland slammed a Chinese-owned textile company on Thursday after it pushed ahead with plans to immediately lay off 3000 workers despite a court order that they be reinstated.

Managers of the Zheng Yong Textile factory in the town of Nhlangano handed out new notices to the workforce telling them of the plant's closure only days after the industrial court said they must give at least 14 days' notice.

Unions had taken the company to the court when staff who reported for work on Monday morning found that the plant had closed and hoped the ruling would persuade the management to open negotiations.

"We successfully overturned the lay-off but it is disappointing that the employer has now gone behind our back and issued another lay-off to our members," Alex Fakudze, president of the Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers Union (Smawu), told AFP.

"The law is quite clear that permanent workers from textile factories should be given 14 days' notice before they can be laid off but the employer is doing as he pleases."

Although no one from the company was available for comment, its lawyers had argued in papers submitted to the industrial court that it had been forced to retrench the workforce as it had run out of fabric following May's massive earthquake in southwest China where the firm is based.

Fakudze, whose organisation is to launch a formal complaint to the labour commissioner, said there was no excuse for the company's conduct.

"They may have valid reasons for the lay-off but their conduct smacks of malice and they were not sincere in their conduct," he said.

"Why is one employer experiencing shortages of material while other textile companies are working without any problems?"

Textile factories are one of the main employers in Swaziland, one of the poorest countries in Africa, and complaints about low wages are frequent.

Smawu staged a strike earlier this year to push for better wages with many workers earning only around 300 emalangeni ($40) a month.

AFP