Workers thrown on to the dole without compensation by defunct retailers Woolworths and Ethel Austin could finally see justice, campaigners said yesterday.

Shopworkers’ union Usdaw said that a case currently before top European judges was “morally and legally robust” — and the union hopes years of legal wrangling could be at an end.

Around 25,000 ex-employees of the two firms got compensation in 2012 — but over 4,000 were fobbed off with the excuse that their branches employed fewer than 20 staff.

“It makes no sense that workers in stores of less than 20 employees were denied compensation,” said Usdaw general secretary John Hannett.

“These were mass redundancy situations where thousands of workers lost their jobs.

“How can anyone suggest that the redundancies should be treated on a store-by-store basis when the whole company was closing down?”