Unions, six councils and an education trust are locked in a legal battle over a £5.2m Connexions youth service contract that was axed days after being awarded.

Unison accused Kingston Council and five others of “decimating” south-west London’s employment and relationship advice service for young and vulnerable people aged 13 to 19.

It claimed staff were left without redundancy or notice pay when the three-year contract with the Centre for British Teachers’ Education Trust (CfBT) was terminated in April.

Unison has launched its own bid for compensation in employment tribunals over 58 staff who were sacked. Another 34 are bringing their own claims.

A key question will be whether CfBT or the councils were responsible for the staff and should pay redundancies and, in some cases, pensions.

Neil McIntosh, CfBT’s chief executive, said staff should have been transferred back to the councils under Transfer of Employment Protection of Employment regulations, when the contract ended.

He said: “Our position in this case is fully supported by Unison, which remains as incredulous as us as to how public sector organisations can flout their responsibilities in this way.

“We have always been and remain deeply sympathetic to the upsetting position the staff find themselves in.”

Kingston councillor Tricia Bamford, responsible for children’s services, said: “Legal proceedings are taking place so I cannot comment further.”

Denise Bertuchi, from Unison, said: “We have been fighting and campaigning for the past year.

“South London has been devastated.”

Earlier this year Marian Freedman, a Connexions adviser at Kingston, said: “Young people have not been consulted, staff have been ignored and schools and colleges poorly informed.”

The Connexions partnership on behalf of Kingston, Sutton, Richmond, Croydon and Merton started in 2001, but the Government announced it would cut funding from 2012 and return careers advice to schools.

The Kingston Connexions shop in Argyll House, Brook Street has since been closed.