On Sunday, the state government announced an agreement had been reached which would keep full-time workers employed, by moving them to the Bombardier VLocity maintenance facility in Ballarat East.

In February, Alstom bought Bombardier's rail manufacturing unit.

READ MORE: Alstom staff to work from Bombardier as plans are finalised for new trains

According to a state government media release, workers will be retrained for the new job, maintaining the trains used on the regional network instead of building trains for the metropolitan network.

They will also "keep their existing entitlements."

According to Ballarat Regional Trades and Labour Council secretary Brett Edgington, the company will deploy the workers on an extra shift at the Ballarat East workshop - it's understood almost 30 positions will be available.

"What we know at this stage is a number - we don't know that number - will be transferred to maintenance at the Bombardier plant as an effective additional shift," he said.

"Some of the Alstom administration staff, like payroll, will remain at the Ballarat North plant, the office at the front of the workshops will remain functioning."

In Ballarat, Alstom was building the XTrapolis train for the metropolitan network - the state government had ordered additional sets as part of an election promise in 2018.

FROM AUGUST: Workers to hold rally at Ballarat's Alstom train factory

However, as work was completed on that project, the company began designing the XTrapolis 2.0, the next generation metropolitan train - the state government was not able to provide a contract to buy new trains, which unions said put workers at risk.

Protests were held at the factory, and state MP offices, throughout the end of 2019 and into 2020, calling for job certainty.

The state government has now committed $12 million to continue design work - Mr Edgington said that's a promising sign.

"That will start off pretty slowly but ramp up as we get closer to 2022 - there'll be retooling, equipment, and testing that will all come out of that $12 million," he said.

"I think we've moved a long way (from the factory almost closing) - I can't see the state government committing $12 million to get to the construction phase without thinking we're going to be ordering these units.

"We will see changes, but I think the important thing is that there's a long-term commitment."

Alstom was contacted for comment but no reply was received by deadline.

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