Workers from Textile company Stead McAlpin in Carlisle have been awarded compensation after being dismissed with 10 minutes warning when the firm went into administration in April 2009.

The 62 employees, who made up half of the workforce, were given just minutes to collect their belongings and leave the premises.

The workers, through their union, Unite, have been fighting for the last 8 months for compensation and were finally awarded the compensation after an industrial tribunal ruled that they were in fact unfairly dismissed.

The compensation will be paid from the company’s insolvency fund and each of the workers is expected to receive a “protective award” of 90 days pay.