Successful Protective Award Claim for M&Co Employees

In August 2020, fashion chain M&Co entered a pre-pack administration deal making 379 employees redundant as the company closed 47 of its 265 stores in the UK. More than 20 redundancies were made at each Head Office location in London and Renfrew. Like other retailers M&Co had faced several difficulties and the Covid-19 pandemic made these worse.

When a company makes 20 or more employees redundant from one workplace, they have a legal duty to collectively inform and consult the affected employees before making them redundant.

If a company fails to follow the correct procedure or consultation process before making employees redundant, then those employees may be entitled to compensation by pursuing a Protective Award Claim in an Employment Tribunal.

As a result of how the company handled the redundancy process, we acted for Head Office staff made redundant and have now successfully secured a Protective Award for almost 50 individuals.

Former M&Co Employees Secure Protective Award Compensation

Morrish Solicitors have successfully secured Protective Award compensation, meaning almost 50 former employees of Meridian Realisations Limited, formerly known as Mackays Stores Limited* who were made redundant without any notice in August 2020 when a pre-pack administration was entered into have been awarded compensation by a Tribunal.

Many employees discovered through media reports on 3 August 2020 that the company was considering a pre-pack insolvency deal, potentially affecting hundreds of jobs. The following day, during a conference call with administrators, some staff members at Head Office locations were told that they were being made redundant with immediate effect.

The company should have engaged in a consultation process with employee representatives for at least 30 days before making any redundancies. It was this failure to comply with the law that led to staff pursuing claims for a protective award.

Former employees can now secure up to £4,304 each as compensation, the maximum amount possible, as a result of the judgment.

Our Partner and Head of Employment, Daniel Kindell acted for 48 of the individuals commented, “Redundancy came as a complete shock to those affected and came at one of the worst times. The impact of the pandemic meant that many individuals will have struggled to secure alternative employment. Had the company consulted about ways of avoiding redundancy, reducing the numbers or mitigating the consequences as they were obliged to, the impact might not have been so severe. 

We’re therefore delighted to have been able to secure well-deserved compensation for the affected employees.  We are seeing far too many insolvent employers flouting the consultation process and making employees redundant with immediate effect. This approach should not go unchallenged and those affected should get the justice they deserve.”

* Mackays Stores Limited now known as Meridian Realisations Limited (against whom judgment is secured) but at the time was more widely known by its trading name – M&Co. Please note, M&Co Trading Limited is a separate entity and therefore was not part of the legal proceedings.

What is a Protective Award Claim

What is a protective award claim and am I entitled to one? A redundancy protective award claim is an award of compensation where employers are proposing to make 20 or more employees redundant from one location within a 90-day period and they fail to comply with the legal duty to consult on a collective basis. This consultation must be carried out with appropriate employee representatives and/or a recognised trade union. Subject to the amount of people made redundant, it should begin at least 30 or 45 days before the first redundancies are made.

If the company does not follow this process properly or at all, a claim can be made in the Employment Tribunals for a Protective Award for up to a maximum of 90 days’ pay.

Our team of employment solicitors have helped thousands of individuals recover millions of pounds in compensation after they were made redundant without consultation. Making a protective award claim with us is straightforward and hassle-free. To check to see if you’re entitled to make a claim, simply complete our redundancy protective award eligibility checker, you’ll be asked to submit your details and then our employment team will take care of the rest.

For more information, please read our redundancy protective award FAQs. 

Experienced Employment Solicitors

Morrish Solicitors is a long-established law firm in West Yorkshire providing a range of legal services for private clients, Unions, Associations and Professional Bodies and their members based both regionally and nationally. Our experienced team of Employment Solicitors are national experts in Protective Award Claims. We are renowned for our ability to secure the maximum Protective Award Claim. In the past we have represented:

  • Over 1,500 former Thomas Cook employees. We achieved the maximum Protective Award of 90 days’ pay for many of their Head Office workers in London, Manchester, and Peterborough. (ITV News, BBC News, TSSA)
  • 260 former CityLink employees who were each awarded 90 days’ pay  (BBC News, ITV News).
  • Also, we’ve had success in other large Protective Award Claims such as Phones Phones4u (Yorkshire Legal News), Sash UK Ltd, Turners Fine Foods, Howard Hunt (City) Ltd, 3AAA, Paperlinx, Austin Reed, Maplin, Poundworld and others.

If you are one of 20 or more employees who have been made redundant from your workplace without consultation, please contact us on 033 3344 9603 or simply email [email protected] with details of your request.

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