Seventy-four ex-J Rotherham Masonry staff are taking legal against their former employers over how the redundancy process was carried out.
The company went into administration on February 3 and administrator KPMG is actively seeking a buyer for the company. There were a limited number of back-office and productions team staff retained to support the process and complete existing orders but 205 people were made redundant.
Law firm Simpson Millar has been contacted by more than 70 affected ex-employees and has begun an investigation to enable appropriate legal action in order to secure a Protective Award on the grounds of the “company’s failure to properly consult staff regarding the mass redundancies”.
Simpson Millar revealed that one employee, a father with an 18-month-old child, was made redundant via a text message from his supervisor while he was on his way to a night shift.
He said he was “deeply saddened” by the news that left him and 205 of his colleagues redundant and searching for new jobs. He added that before the company went into administration, it had been “great company to work for”.
A Protective Award is a payment awarded by an Employment Tribunal in cases where an employer fails to follow the correct procedure when making 20 or more redundancies. If the Employment Tribunal finds in the favour of the employees, they will be able to access the funds via the Government Insolvency Service.
Stephen Pinder, a specialist employment law partner at Simpson Millar, said: “This is, no doubt, an incredibly difficult period for those affected and many will be attempting to understand the news and plan their next steps.
“To date, we have been contacted by 74 former employees who are looking to bring in claims for a Protective Award, which would be paid out to those affected by redundancies where they have not been properly consulted.”
kbbreview has contacted former managing director of J Rotherham and KPMG and is awaiting their comments.