Worker sacked in 'British jobs' row

A Shropshire worker has been sacked for putting up a poster at his workplace calling for British jobs to be saved.

Ben Doyle today denied he was racist and said he had only displayed the poster at Structural Glazing Limited, in Telford, urging "British Jobs for British Workers" as a "laugh".

The 29-year-old was hauled before bosses at the Stafford Park-based firm on Tuesday and sacked for gross misconduct after a disciplinary hearing.

The firm told the father-of-two that the poster, which he got out of a national newspaper, had caused distress and harassment to a foreign employee with the legal right to work in this country and had resulted in the worker fearing for his safety and resigning.

Mr Doyle, of Brookside, who said he always got on well with his work colleagues and bosses, said today: "I'm far from being racist. I have not got a problem with people as long as I can do my job."

He said he had appealed the decision and wanted the chance to go back to work for the company.

"I don't feel angry, I feel shocked and disappointed. I was expecting to go into the disciplinary hearing and maybe get a warning. I don't think it would have been fair, but I would have taken that if it meant carrying on with the job."

The warehouseman, who has worked for the firm for seven months, said: "I'm sorry for my actions if they caused offence. I'd just like a chance to have my job back."

The slogan was used by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who said it was important to do everything possible to give British workers the skills necessary for them to be able to get jobs that are available in the UK.

John Richardson, chairman of Structural Glazing, said: "Ben still has another couple of days left to appeal for another hearing so we cannot say anything about that.

"I have written in detail to the Daily Star because they should have known what they were publishing was racist, and to the Commission for Racial Equality about the Prime Minister, who also must have known that the slogan was racially inappropriate."

By Lisa Rowley