An engineer who won a claim for racial discrimination against Oxford Instruments has now won his case for unfair dismissal against the firm.

Chaim Morgan won his case

Chaim Morgan, 59, is waiting to find out how much compensation he will receive after a tribunal agreed his redundancy was unfair and described the company's appeal process as a "sham".

Mr Morgan, an Israeli Jew who was headhunted by the firm for his knowledge of magnets, worked for the company, mainly at its Eynsham site, for five years until May 2004, when he was among 30 colleagues selected for redundancy.

The father-of-four, of Charter Street, Walllingford, was made redundant within four months of his successful action against the company for racial discrimination.

At the earlier hearing, company operations manager Chris Russell admitted telling staff that his team at another firm had been described as 'The Hitler Youth' as their approach to quality was "single-minded".

The tribunal ruled that the statement was offensive to Mr Morgan and Oxford Instruments offered him £1,000 compensation.

Mr Morgan said he was shocked at his subsequent dismissal because, during the discrimination tribunal, managers said they "genuinely wished" him to continue working for them.

The latest tribunal at Reading found that Mr Morgan had been unfairly victimised as a result of the earlier tribunal, and criticised the company for its redundancy procedures.

The judgement papers said: "While the employees were allowed to appeal (against) the decision, the appeal was clearly a sham.

"The respondent's (Oxford Instruments') own document of instructions to managers indicated that there was no chance of the decision being overturned and, indeed, no redundancy appeals were successful."

Mr Morgan, who has been unable to find another job, said: "The company's witnesses gave evidence that I was a valued employee, that they genuinely recognised my particular skills and that they wished to retain my services.

"However, within only weeks of that, I found myself being made redundant. I was therefore forced to take new Employment Tribunal proceedings."

Unless the compensation can be settled outside the tribunal, there will be a further hearing later this year.

A spokesman for Oxford Instruments said the company would not comment until after the matter had been concluded.