Staff at a council-run care home in Bristol, which is being rebuilt, were given just days notice of where their jobs will be based for the next few years.

Hollybrook in Hartcliffe closed yesterday as part of a Bristol City Council shake-up of residential homes and is due to reopen as a specialist dementia residential site.

The last residents have already moved from the home and staff said they were informed on Tuesday that the building would formally close on Sunday. They claim they were left letters from their employers at the site stating where they would work from Monday and were given just two days to appeal the moves.

Some staff are upset at being moved to other care homes on the other side of the city and some claim it could now take them hours to get to work. They said they have been told bus fares will only be reimbursed if they pay for monthly passes, costing in the region of £75, and complained many of them cannot afford such expenses when they work about 20 to 25 hours a week on low wages.

They say the options they have been given are unreasonable and have submitted grievances to their employers.

One member of staff, who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisals, said: " I was absolutely distraught when I heard and I felt for all my colleagues and was absolutely appalled about it. We had not been told anything before and were just given our letters."

A spokesman for Bristol City Council said it had honoured its commitment to staff that there would be no compulsory redundancies. There was no work at Hollybrook but staff were needed elsewhere.