TWO hundred steelworkers sacked from the £750m Wembley Stadium project are planning a mass picket today.

The workers, including draughtsmen, welders, fabricators, engineers, technicians and senior management, lost their jobs on Friday - only weeks after seeing them saved.

The former Cleveland Bridge employees were initially laid off last month as the Darlington firm pulled out of the development.

But days later they were reinstated by industry labour provider Fast Track, which offered them jobs on behalf of Hollandia, the Dutch firm that took over steel work from Cleveland Bridge.

However, on Friday, the main contractor, Multiplex, issued a statement saying Hollandia had sacked the workers because of unacceptable additional demands to the contracts they agreed with Fast Track.

The sacked workers are planning a picket on the Wembley Stadium site today. They are also planning to take Fast Track recruitment consultancy to court for unfair dismissal.

Gerry Hunter, regional officer for Amicus, one of the unions representing the men, said that to sack 200 and get another 200 to walk straight in would be difficult for Multiplex. He said it was a Blue Book site, meaning that there are agreements and protocols in place.

The saga started last month when the workers were given redundancy notices amid reports of a row between Cleveland Bridge and Multiplex.

The company had built and installed the stadium's Triumphant Arch shortly before the problems arose and it pulled out of the development.

Sources close to the project, said the workers were sacked on Friday because they wanted a new redundancy policy to apply to their contracts.

They were also said to have called for changes to working hours and longer weekend breaks, allowing many of them to return to their homes in the North-East

Multiplex has said the stadium is still on course to open for the 2006 FA Cup final.

Darlington MP Alan Milburn is believed to have warned the Football Association that delays are inevitable.

But the Government's Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, has been given assurances that the project would be completed on time.