Welsh Training and Enterprise Councils could face a bill of hundreds of thousands of pounds after a landmark industrial tribunal ruling, according to the Public and Commercial Services Union.

The decision by a north Wales tribunal that 19 workers were denied their employment rights when they transferred from the civil service to work for CELTEC (the north Wales TEC), could benefit up to 150 other workers in Wales and 1,200 across Britain, according to the union.

Increased payment

The tribunal ruled that the workers' previous service with the civil service should have been recognised in calculating redundancy payments.

Their payments will now increase by as much as four times.

One of the three workers whose cases were used as lead cases for the 19 will have her payment increased from �5,000 to �20,000.

Urgent talks

This could have implications for the reorganisation of the TECs currently being planned by the Assembly.

A letter to Assembly Secretary Tom Middlehurst leaked to Tory AM Jonathan Morgan warned there could be "significant redundancies" as a result.

Union spokesman Peter Harris said they would now be seeking urgent talks with Assembly and UK officials.