A COUNCIL that gave up control of its entire housing stock in a deal worth £220m has been accused of failing to consult its workers of the move, an employment tribunal heard yesterday.

Labour-run Sunderland City Council completed the transfer of its 36,800 houses, flats and bungalows to a specially-formed non-profit making company in March last year.

But the biggest public service union Unison says the authority breached employment regulations because it failed to consult the 1,400 workers affected.

The Newcastle tribunal, expected to last a week, will also hear how the council allegedly rushed through what became the biggest ever transfer of housing stock in the country.

The transfer, which affected about 100,000 people, was backed in a ballot by 88 per cent of tenants who voted.

Unison, represented in the tribunal hearing by James Goudie, QC, is angry that workers were only given four months warning about the upheaval and claims workers' representatives were kept in the dark.

The tribunal's first witness, David Glyn Roberts, the council's director of personnel, told Mr Goudie that the authority had a "commitment to consult", adding: "This was a massive exercise in terms of disengaging a large proportion of the workforce."

When asked why the council failed to consult the ten per cent of its workforce affected by the transfer before the tenant ballot, Mr Roberts replied: "Until we had the outcome of the tenants' ballot, the council did not have a position on the matter.

"If we had done it before the ballot, I may well have been criticised by the trade union for anticipating a decision that had not yet been taken."

Five other housing subsidiaries covering Central Sunderland, North Sunderland, South Sunderland, Houghton and Hetton and Washington are also facing a claim that they failed to consult their own employees.