A TERRITORIAL Army (TA) soldier will take action against a North-East engineering plant after he was made redundant days after he returned from Afghanistan.

Simon Sunderland, 37, was coming to the end of a 12- month tour of duty when bosses at Cummins, in Darlington, emailed him to say he was being made redundant.

The Unite union has vowed to fight the decision, and warned that the company could be in breach of the law.

Mr Sunderland, a father-offour, from Middlesbrough, said: “It was a kick in the teeth.

“I thought I was coming home to normality, but then I had to deal with this nightmare.”

Mr Sunderland’s tour of duty began in May last year.

He returned to the UK at the start of March, but was still under the employment of the Army for another two months, and was looking forward to a holiday with his family.

His post as a production line worker was to be held until he returned from duty, but he lost his job along with another 400 staff at the US-owned company’s factory in Darlington, and has been out of work since.

Mike Routledge, from Unite, said the decision could be in breach of legislation designed to protect workers who are called up to serve with the TA.

He said: “This is going to be strongly challenged by ourselves.

“I do not know how Cummins had the temerity to make him redundant while he was serving his country.

“It is ironic that he was out there fighting in Afghanistan with our American cousins, but it is an American firm that has now put him out of work.

“We should be doing all we can to support our troops.

“Legally, we think this is questionable, but morally, it is unbelievable.”

A Cummins spokesman said: “We have had to lose over 400 people through the redundancy process, and it has been a really difficult period for Cummins.

“It is unfortunate that he has been made redundant, but he has not been treated any differently to anybody else.

“We are very supportive of the British Forces, but when it comes to redundancy we have to follow procedure which treats everybody the same.”

Mr Sunderland was in Kabul during his time in Afghanistan, and previously completed a six-month tour in Iraq.

He said last night: “I hope to get a job in a similar line of work now, but who knows what will happen. People are getting laid off left, right and centre at the moment – there just isn’t the work out there.”