A supervisor was sacked from the Bank of England after 15 years service because she refused to sign a new contract, an employment tribunal heard.

Clare Peadon, from East Grinstead, a supervisor at the Bank of England's Foreign Exchange Department, told the tribunal how she refused to accept the new working conditions, which she claimed stripped away work benefits.

She was one of seven former employees who have brought unfair dismissal claims against the Bank of England.

Mrs Peadon told the court how she had made a stand and not sign the new contract but her husband, who also worked for the bank, had to as the main breadwinner.

She told the hearing: "I didn't want to accept it and I was sacked.

"My husband didn't want to accept but the responsibility for the mortgage and family meant he had to."

Mrs Peadon had also brought a claim for sexual discrimination against her former employers.

The tribunal heard her husband lost his subsidised mortgage of two per cent once he had signed up to the new contract.

He also lost his 12 flexi days.

Mrs Peadon, who now works as a school secretary and doctor's receptionist, told the tribunal she held out against signing the new contract for a number of months in the hope of retaining her mortgage benefits but heard through the banking union Unifi, in July 2000, the Bank of England was preparing to sack her and other staff.

The hearing continues today.