AGENCY staff were sacked with half an hour’s notice after working for years on a £170m Government tax contract.

The TUC said 20 agency staff from Kelly Services were told to clear their desks and escorted from the premises of computer giant Fujitsu in Farriers Way, Netherton.

The sacking of the 20 late last week followed the axing of 12 others in the preceding month, the TUC said.

Some of the staff had worked at the office for eight years but will not be entitled to a penny of redundancy pay.

Last night Labour’s Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle said it was “disgraceful” the way consecutive governments had promoted employers rights over those of employees.

Fujitsu, which employs 116 of its own permanent staff at the office which handles tax returns for HM Revenues and Customs, last night refused to comment.

HMRC also refused to comment and Kelly Services did not respond to a request for comment.

Last night the TUC launched a campaign to highlight the plight of agency workers and has set up a website fairtoagencyworkers.org to demand fair treatment for agency staff throughout the region.

North West TUC regional secretary Alan Manning said: “Agency workers are being treated as second class citizens in the workplace.

“They often earn far less money for doing exactly the same work, have less rights and benefits and are usually the first to be sacked – without any entitlement to redundancy pay.”

The TUC said the agency staff had complained of being “treated like cattle”, earning up to £8,000 a year less than permanent staff – for doing exactly the same jobs.

They also did not get pension entitlement and even got five minutes less break-time than permanent staff, said the TUC.