AN MP is calling for workers to be given more consultation rights after redundancy notices were issued at a Gwent power plant.

The Argus reported yesterday how workers at the Fifoots Point power station in Nash, Newport, were handed letters giving them just one month's notice of redundancy. The brief letter, believed to have been given to all 100 workers and signed by plant manager Vic Danks, simply says it is with regret that the workers will be made redundant on April 18.

Now some of them fear they won't get paid as the company has called in the receivers. Newport East MP Alan Howarth (pictured) has called for the implementation of a European directive aimed at giving workers consultation rights.

He has lambasted the way the management is handling the situation. He said: "It's appalling for anybody who depends on their livelihood working there. But casual four-line letters explaining with regret simply won't do."

Mr Howarth added that if the plant was shedding workers because of high production costs and low energy prices, then it was global capitalism at its worst.

He said: "That's why we need to bring forward the European directive on consultation so management are obliged to share with workers strategic thinking."

Some of the workers who are being made redundant joined the US-owned American Energy Supplies (AES) plant last year after moving from the Corus steelworks in the city. No-one from the company was available for comment when the Argus tried to contact them.