Pilots are to begin legal proceedings against two helicopter firms in a dispute over job losses.

Nearly 30 people have been left without a job and without redundancy pay after their former employer DanCopter UK's deal with Shell to transport workers to and from North Sea oil platforms was taken over by CHC Helicopter.

DanCopter insists that its former staff should be transferred to the company which took on the contract, under the government's Tupe regulations, which protect employees' rights when the service they work for changes hands.

However, CHC Helicopter insists that Tupe does not apply.

The workers, based at Norwich Airport, said that in order for legal proceedings to begin they had to present themselves ready for work, only to be turned away at the gates by the company which has taken over the contract.

They were later escorted on to the site to collect their belongings. They now face a legal battle which could take up to 18 months.

Pilot Luke Morgan is a former employee of DanCopter and a representative of the Independent Pilots Association (IPA) union.

The 52-year-old father-of-two, from Mundesley, said: 'Everyone is in a different situation but for some people it is desperate. Some people might have to sell their houses.'

A spokesman for CHC said: 'Last month, CHC Helicopter began to operate helicopter services from Norwich Airport, transporting offshore workers to multiple fields in the south North Sea.

'We have been in contact with the IPA and with representatives of DanCopter regularly and, after thorough legal consideration, we continue to assert that Tupe does not apply under current circumstances.'

Before the contract came to an end, a spokesman for NHV Group, the parent company of DanCopter, said as the service was being continued by another employer, it believed that Tupe did apply.

He added that the company was still looking at ways of mitigating the impact of the loss of the contract.