“The company had operations from Newcastle to Perth but the majority of the retrenched workers are in the Illawarra, adding another sorry chapter to the recent history of manufacturing and heavy industrial services in this region,” the Illawarra Mercury summarised on Wednesday.

“SES was placed into voluntary administration a fortnight ago and while administrator McGrathNicol has been trying to find a buyer, the money has run out.”

An undisclosed former SES worker told the newspaper that his retrenchment news came from a Sunday night phone call – a marked departure from how the 64-year-old company operated.

"You wouldn't treat your worst enemy the way they put them off," he reportedly said.

"This was originally a family-owned business and there were a lot of families built into the business."

Employees were reportedly not given any specific reason for the downfall other than that SES was hit hard by “the downturn in the coal mining sector”

A McGrathNicol spokesman said the administrators did not want to retrench workers on a Sunday night.

"There was not enough money left to pay for one day's work on Monday,” he told the newspaper.

“So that meant they had to call a number of staff on Sunday night and say the job's redundant."