SOME 239 mainland workers sacked from the $10 billion airport terminal project yesterday agreed to accept $5,000 each to end their dispute after spending a night in the street. They had demanded $30,000 from the main contractor, BCJ Joint Venture, although they had been employed by a subcontractor. The group yesterday dug in for the second day outside the Labour Department in Central as the dispute was thrashed out inside. BCJ had offered a deal including statutory notice pay, holiday pay and a $500 travel allowance for them to return to China. But workers said they had 'bought' their jobs, each paying about $30,000 to the sub-contractor, Success Civil and Foundation/ CITIC (Guohua) International Contracting Joint Venture. In November, CITIC withdrew from the joint venture after severe financial problems and the subcontract with BCJ ended. BCJ could not provide alternative jobs and said repatriation was the only option. Legislator and Confederation of Trade Unions representative Tsang Kin-shing said the workers accepted the reduced amount because they believed it was the best they could get. Mr Tsang said the workers, who have to leave Hong Kong within two weeks, would ask the Labour Department to allow them to find another job. 'We'll help them look for accommodation tomorrow, although tonight they have gone back to Chek Lap Kok,' he said. A BCJ spokesman called for a thorough review of the way labour agents are used to bring foreign workers to Hong Kong after a series of similar disputes on airport-related contracts. The Social Welfare Department gave blankets and sleeping mats to the workers who spent Thursday night on the pavement. Ocean Palace Restaurant and Nightclub provided lunch boxes, while the Labour Department gave out water, cakes and hamburgers. 'It was a very cold and noisy night. The traffic was too busy. Nobody could sleep,' said a 24-year-old worker. A group of 72 imported workers on the West Kowloon Expressway were officially dismissed by contractors yesterday. Contractors representative Yip Bing-fai admitted they had changed their mind about rehiring the men. 'We had told them we wouldn't fire them on that day [last Monday] but it didn't mean we wouldn't fire them on another day,' he said. The men had won back deducted wages after a strike and unionists claimed they were being fired in revenge.