AN MP will urge Parliament to intervene in a long-running dispute between a sacked nurse and a North East health trust.

An employment tribunal in April found that Yunus Bakhsh had the right to demand his job back, five years after he was first suspended amid claims of bullying colleagues.

Executives at Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust suspended and then dismissed Mr Bakhsh after they received anonymous complaints against him.

Last summer a tribunal ruled that Mr Bakhsh’s sacking was a reaction to his activity with the trade union Unison and that he had been the victim of disability discrimination.

And in a rare ruling, employment judges ordered his former employers to re-hire him through an “order of re-engagement” by June 30.

But when Mr Bakhsh, of Sunniside in Gateshead, arrived at work expecting to resume his career, he was handed a letter and told he would not be returning over concerns regarding his nursing registration.

Ian Mearns, MP for Gateshead, now plans to table a motion in the House of Commons insisting that the trust complies with the tribunal ruling to re-instate his constituent.

The motion will call for a public inquiry into the trust’s conduct and whether health chiefs have breached a court order by failing to re-hire Mr Bakhsh.

In a letter to the trust, Mr Mearns wrote: “In the reasons given by the trust for not re-engaging my constituent, it specifically highlights issues relating to his trade union activities.

“Given the previous judgement of the tribunal that Mr Bakhsh had suffered unlawful detriment due to his union membership, I must say that I have serious concerns about this action.

“Clearly his only remedy, given the trust considers that it can’t comply with its previous remedies agreement, will be to consider yet further legal action.

“I would ask exactly how much public money has been expended on this issue so far, and whether the trust is prepared to reach an equitable remedies agreement with Mr Bakhsh, before yet further funds are expended on yet further legal actions.”

The trust insists it could not offer the 50-year-old his job back because there were management concerns over his registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said that any ruling on whether the trust had breached a court order would be made by the judge overseeing the original tribunal.

The tribunal panel sitting on Newcastle’s Quayside ordered that the trust re-employ him in his job as a psychiatric nurse, and compensate him £48,000 for lost earnings.

Mr Bakhsh worked at Newcastle’s Hadrian Clinic for Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust for more than two decades. He had disciplinary proceedings carried out against him 21 months after his original suspension but was too ill with stress and depression to attend the hearings.

In his absence, trust bosses fired him in June 2008 and informed the worker by letter that his 23 years with the NHS were at an end.

The trust declined to comment on Mr Mearns’ motion.