The amicable resolution of a long-running dispute between Fujitsu Services and employees at its Manchester office could be in jeopardy after the firm threatened to make one employee redundant.

To make matters worse, Amicus, the union leading a dispute over pay, redundancy rights and union recognition at Fujitsu, said the company has bodged redundancy procedures for the poor soul.

Gary Ellison, the one worker out of 850 working at Fujitsu Manchester who has been singled out for redundancy, has been given just 30 days notice. This breaks a long-standing agreement that staff should get 90 days notice and Fujitsu should make every effort to redeploy them, Amicus said in a statement last night.

"I've got a wife and kids and it's hard enough to get by. I can't believe a company with 14,000 UK staff hasn't been able to find me another job," said Ellison, who has worked at Fujitsu since 1994, in the statement.

Ellison had kept the ship running at Fujitsu's West Gorton office while the other 849-odd were relocating. He had been moved to Linkwise, which the union said was Fujitsu's redeployment and pre-redundancy pool. Like any limbo worth the name, the union implied, Ellison was then forgotten until HR gave him notice.

The union said Ellison had made a complaint about racism at work "a couple of years ago" but Fujitsu had "rejected his grievance".

Fujistu said: "Fujitsu does not comment on individual personnel matters."®