THE fate of an East Lancashire post office is expected to be decided by a test case tribunal due to start today.

And the result could have far-reaching consequences across the country.

Belthorn sub-postmaster Ken Hayward is demanding the minimum wage for the 47 hours a week he opens his post office counter at his home in Holden Street.

If he wins , Mr Hayward will be entitled to £3.60 an hour, not the £2.50 an hour he claims his pay stands at now.

If he loses it could mean the closure of the business he has run in Belthorn for the last 14 years.

The tribunal has been adjourned several times already but it was set to go ahead today in Manchester.

Mr Hayward said he was determined to fight the case himself against the Post Office's top counsel because, as he put it: "who better to get behind a cause than a man whose livelihood depends on it?"

Mr Hayward said: "The case hinges around whether or not postmasters are classed as workers or are self-employed.

"If we are workers we are entitled to the minimum wage and also paid holidays," he explained. "In the past, the Post Office has topped up earnings to try to make our wages up to the minimum set by the Government but this has only come in the form of a small office payment in arrears at the end of the year and then they are denying us our costs to bring in paid holiday stand-ins.

"The whole situation is very complicated and needs sorting out once and for all. The Government claims it is keen to keep small businesses open but if people like me don't get a proper wage, with the Post Office complying with the rules, then small businesses will not survive." Mr Hayward also runs a small grocery, newsagents and off licence from what is, effectively, the front room of the family home.

He added: "That part of the business is separate from the post office but if this case does not go my way, the future of the whole set-up looks bleak.

Earlier this year a sub-postmistress in Scotland thought she had won a landmark verdict when she fought the Post Office on the minimum wage issue but the decision was eventually judged wrong in law.

Post Office Network, formerly Post Office Counters, insists that postmasters are self-employed and therefore outside the area covered by directives governing minimum wages and Working Time Regulations.