A FORMER carpet fitter who claimed he was fired for refusing to work on Wednesday nights has won a bitter legal battle against his old employers after they refused to pay him six weeks' wages

Pensioner Mike Whitehouse said he was devastated after returning from a family holiday to New Zealand in March this year to find a letter saying his services were no longer required at Furnitureland based in Hedge End.

The 66-year-old, of Brookside Way, Hedge End, who joined the company in November 1994, had accepted a part-time contract with the Furnitureland last October after turning 65.

He had been happily doing between 25 and 30 hours work until Furnitureland bosses "insisted" he also worked between 6pm to 8pm on Wednesdays.

Now he has finally got the six weeks' pay he was entitled to for his six years' service.

Mike, a former kitchen salesman who has four grandchildren, said: "Furnitureland dismissed me immediately saying that as I had only signed a new contract last October I had not served the necessary time with the company for notice to become effective.

"They clearly did not know their law. I hadn't left the company and, as such, the revised contract was continuous and based on the six years I had already served.

Furnitureland marketing director, Roger Handley, based at the company's London HQ said: "The manager at our Hedge End store is out of the country and no one else understands the full details of the court case involving Mr Whitehouse. I am not prepared to comment on something I have little knowledge of."