Gate Gourmet walkout was illegal

The sackings led to a bitter dispute between the firm and the unions.

Strike action taken by a group of Gate Gourmet catering staff was illegal, a tribunal board in Reading has ruled.

Their dispute with their former employer last summer led to travel chaos for British Airways passengers at Heathrow Airport.

The workers, mainly Asian women, had been seeking to bring around 100 separate cases for unfair dismissal.

On 10 August last year hundreds of workers were sacked after they gathered in the company canteen.

Later that day the afternoon shift workers were also dismissed in the car park outside the company's Heathrow base.

The sympathy strike by BA workers caused chaos at Heathrow

The move triggered a bitter dispute between the firm - which supplies BA with tens of thousands of in-flight meals - and the Transport and General Workers' Union.

It also led to sympathy action by baggage handlers which caused delays for tens of thousands of BA passengers.

An agreement was signed to end the dispute but around 140 employees refused to accept it.

Around 100 of this group had been seeking to bring cases for unfair dismissal against their former employer.