A FACTORY worker has won thousands of pounds in compensation after he was sacked from his job at one of Darlington's biggest companies.

Jeff Wright, 27, of West Auckland Road, Darlington, took Cummins Engines to an industrial tribunal for unfair dismissal after he was told to leave his post in September 2000.

Mr Wright had been employed as a factory worker at the US-owned business for 18 months when he was told the company, which employs about 700 staff, was making redundancies.

He was subsequently dismissed, with the company citing that he had been off work sick three times and there was one incident of misconduct.

Mr Wright, who has now set up a business with his brother, said: "I was told that if there had been four of these occurrences then I would be laid off.

"When I checked my contract it stated that it had to be four of sickness or four of conduct, but they had combined them.

"Apparently it was a new agreement to combine them, but they had failed to inform any employee or put it in writing, so the tribunal agreed in my favour."

The factory worker discovered that some people who had not worked at the company for as long as he had kept their jobs, while he lost his.

Mr Wright, who represented himself at the tribunal, attended the hearing in October and was told he had won the case in January.

This week he attended a further hearing in Newcastle to find out how much compensation he would receive.

Tribunal officials informed him he had been awarded £5,525 compensation.

Mr Wright said: "I am glad that I went through with the tribunal. I was told that I probably would not have a chance, but I won and I did it by myself."

The company declined to comment about the case.

* Last April, Thomas Court, 53, of Darlington, lost a claim for unfair dismissal against Cummins Engines after he breached a smoking ban.

The tribunal found the engineering firm had acted reasonably when sacking him