The families of two workers who were burnt alive in an industrial bread oven say they haven't received any - 27 years after the tragedy. Engineers David Mayes, 47, and Ian Erickson, 44, died after entering the oven to carry out repairs at the Harvestime factory in .

David and Ian had entered the stove only two hours after it had been switched off to retrieve a missing part, wearing nothing more than flimsy all-in-one suits. But the men sent panicked messages on a radio to their colleagues within minutes of entering the furnace back on May 18, 1998.

Their only chance of escape was to pass through the machine on a conveyor belt in temperatures of 100C (212F). Ian, of Walsall, , managed to scramble free but was badly burnt and died on the factory floor. David, of Rushey Mead, Leicestershire, was caught in machinery inside the oven and died from crush injuries and heat exposure - his body was recovered by firemen.

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In 2001, Fresha Bakeries, its trading arm Harvestime Ltd and three directors were ordered to pay more than £500,000 made up of fines and costs. But at the time a heard there was no legal entitlement to compensation to the victims' families and the firm was not ordered to give them anything.

But now relatives of the two tragic men have revealed they not received any form of compensation nearly three decades on David's brother-in-law Keith Harris told : "It is still very raw after all these years. David's family didn't get a penny in compensation. He was entitled to nothing. If you die at work in an accident the company has to pay for a funeral but they only paid for a basic one and wouldn't pay for a headstone."

David's family also said his loved ones had been treated with contempt even after their deaths. And Keith said that the family wanted manslaughter charges to be brought against the company. "It should never have happened. The company was hammered with fines but not hard enough," he said last week. "We wanted to get manslaughter charges brought against them."

Another family member described Mr Mayes as a "popular and friendly man" who had "done very well for himself." A local said of the horror tragedy: "It happened nearly three decades ago but it is one of those terrible stories you never forget."

During the trial in 2001, Anthony Barker QC, prosecuting, said: "The oven was normally set to run at 260C. It had only been turned off for two hours and the centre was 100C when these two men went inside.

"No-one, it seemed, looked at the temperature gauge at the side of the oven which would have indicated it wasn't safe to go in. Those men went in when it was hot enough to boil water, in such circumstances where serious injury or death was inevitable."

The pair were called in after a grid on the cover belt of the bakery's massive oven - which passed bread trays through slowly in order to evenly bake the break - had dislodged and fallen to the bottom.

Their task was to recover it and put it back in place, which involved climbing inside the huge machine, heard Leicester . Ian, had taken a radio with him and after a few minutes inside sent a panicky message saying it was too hot.

But there was no way of reversing the belt and the pair were trapped on its journey through the oven. And it was 17 minutes - the time it took for the conveyor to pass through the oven - before other workers were able to help the men.

It emerged during the 2001 trial that company bosses should have left the oven - which baked bread at roasting temperatures of 260C - to cool down for 12 hours before allowing the work to be undertaken. But David and Ian were ordered to enter the unit just two hours after the oven had been switched off by bosses - as the company would have lost £1,120 for every hour the oven was shut down.

They were unaware of the danger as fans had cooled the outer reaches of the oven to 40C "They were trapped. There was no system of reversing the conveyor and no system of getting them out of the oven," said Mr Barker.

On the day of the disaster, father-of-two Mr Erickson, a 47-year-old engineer from Walsall, West Midlands, had told how he was looking forward to getting the job done in good time so that he could get back home to watch the final between Newcastle United and Arsenal with his sons. Mr Mayes, 44, from Leicester, had told friends the night before: 'I have a challenge in the morning. I am going for it - the money is good.'

Three executives, Fresha Bakeries and the firm's owners, Harvestime, admitted health and safety offences. Fresha was fined £250,000 with £175,000 costs and Harvestime was fined £100,000 with £75,000 costs. Three men were fined a total of £23,000 with £5,000 costs.

John Bridson, of Hale, the managing director of Fresha Limited, the company which owns the bakery, admitted two charges of failing to provide a safe system of work. The production director, Brian Jones, of Hertford, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to a single count of the same offence. The chief engineer, Dennis Masters, of Mountsorrel, admitted one charge of failing to take reasonable care for others at work.