FORMER miners at the North-East's last deep pit could get back-pay of about £2m after a tribunal found a company had lied to them about why it closed.

About 350 people lost their jobs when Ellington Colliery, in Northumberland, closed after flooding. Owner UK Coal said it was unsafe, but an employment tribunal said in its judgement that the reason given for the closure was "wholly untrue".

Ellington closed after thousands of gallons of water flooded the pit in January last year.

The miners' claim was for the payment they would have received had a 90-day consultation period taken place.

The tribunal said UK Coal's failure to comply with the employment regulations was deliberate.

It said there was no evidence that safety was an issue in the closure of Ellington and that it was an economic decision.

The tribunal also found there was no meaningful consultation over the closure because information given to the workforce had been "deliberately falsified".

National Union of Mineworkers national chairman Ian Lavery said: "We knew that they were misrepresenting the case.

"And it's taken a tribunal and the panel to decide on our behalf that we were right."

Members of the workforce should now receive up to £6,000 each in back-pay.

But UK Coal personnel director Norman Haslam denied they had lied.

A UK Coal spokesman said: "We will await the written judgement and consider the issues before deciding if and what further action is appropriate."

He said they could not rule out the possibility of an appeal.