A DROITWICH construction firm has been told to pay a trainee carpenter more than £4,000 for unfairly dismissing him after being accused of misleading him over his college course.

Mr Andrew House, aged 24, gave up his job as manager of a Wetherspoon pub in Bromsgrove to become a trainee carpenter with Enterprises Interiors Ltd, of Rushock Trading Estate, Droitwich, a Birmingham Employment Tribunal was told.

But Mr House, who was claming compensation for unfair dismissal, told the tribunal he had lost his job after one-and-a-half years with the firm.

"I had been off work ill for a time and on my return I was told by the firm that I was losing my job because I no longer had a position on a Stourbridge College course for carpentry," he said.

"I was on my way to complete a level two course in carpentry last June when I lost my job and the aim had been to stay at the college to complete level three by June this year.

"I believed I had been treated unfairly by the firm. I had not done anything wrong but the management told me I had been taken off the course. That was not the case. The firm had made no effort to check it out."

Now Mr House has got a carpentry job with another construction firm and plans to complete his course with the USA in mind.

Mr House said Enterprises Interiors had failed to reply to his letter seeking a reason for his dismissal.

The firm was not represented at the hearing.

Tribunal chairman, Mr Stan Britton, said the tribunal panel had decided that Mr House had been unfairly dismissed and awarded him a total of £4,280.

Mr House said after the hearing that he was delighted with the award.

"I used to be a manager at a Wetherspoon pub in Bromsgrove but I became interested in carpentry while on holiday in America.

"I got talking to a carpenter working on property and he told me there was an acute shortage of qualified carpenters in America.

"On returning home I gave up my Wetherspoons job and decided to qualify as a carpenter. One day I might even go to America and get a carpenter's job."