MEMBERS of a firefighting shift disbanded by fire chiefs because they had become a "law unto themselves" have lost their claims of unfair dismissal.

Michael Coakley and Marshal Ramshaw, both 50, claimed at an industrial tribunal earlier this year, that Tyne and Wear Fire and Civil Defence Authority fire chiefs had conducted a politically correct witchhunt for racists.

Mr Coakley, 50, of Lynthorpe, Ryhope, near Sunderland, said he was transferred from the city's central fire station as punishment, a day after completing the defence of two colleagues at a disciplinary hearing into racial abuse claims.

Mr Ramshaw, 50, of Houghton-le-Spring, who was cleared of racism, claimed along with Mr Coakley, that he had been unfairly sacked after suffering from depression over the sudden station move.

But Tyne and Wear Chief Fire Officer Richard Bull told the tribunal that he had transferred a number of members of Sunderland's Green Watch because of insular and unhealthy attitudes.

The situation came to a head when a member of the neighbouring Grindon fire station accused two members of the watch of racial abuse, which culminated in a disciplinary hearing.

Mr Bull said that, in view of the fact that feelings were running so high, it was considered that the health and safety risk posed by these two groups meeting at an emergency were too great to tolerate.

He said, there had been a long history of concerns about Green Watch's attitudes.

In one incident, a woman officer visiting the Green Watch to undertake an equal opportunities training session, had to listen to an explicit discussion among the men on how women firefighters might dispose of sanitary protection while on duty.

Watch logs included comments such as "splat" written against an incident where a teenager died after falling from a bridge.

The tribunal found that the fire authority had acted reasonably and that the transfers had been for operational reasons.