Misco UK employees have a right to justice
We are offering assistance to ex-employees of Misco UK as a result of the organisation’s recent announcement that it has entered into administration.
Misco UK, the computer reselling firm, made 300 employees redundant with immediate effect on the morning of 19 October across sites in Wellingborough, Weybridge and Greenock. We understand that despite a turnaround plan being in place to try to improve cash-flow, credit insurers significantly tightened their terms which increased pressure at a time when competition from other global online retailers began to increase.
Misco Europe, which has operations in Italy, Spain Netherlands and Sweden, continues to trade.
This has sadly resulted in mass redundancies and financial hardship is inevitable. We therefore want to ensure that ex-employees are aware of their additional rights to compensation. Ex-employee’s made redundant with immediate effect might have claims for something called a Protective Award, as well as redundancy entitlements. We therefore urge former staff members to contact our employment law team for advice and representation following this sudden announcement.
A company is under a duty to give advance notice and consult with staff representatives for a minimum of 30 days where it proposes to dismiss 20 or more employees at one workplace within a 90 day period. Companies are legally obliged to tell employee representatives what is happening, tell them that redundancies are looking likely and consult with them about ways of avoiding redundancies, keep numbers to a minimum and/or mitigate the effects.
If this does not happen, employees may be able to make a claim in an Employment Tribunal for up to 3 months’ pay for a Protective Award – essentially a penalty for the failure to comply with its obligations. This compensation payment is payable in addition to redundancy pay, notice pay and other basic entitlements. If a company is insolvent, the Government Insolvency Service will guarantee up to 8 weeks of the value of a Protective Award claim, subject to any deductions (but they will only pay this if they have an Employment Tribunal Judgment ordering a Protective Award to be paid).
Daniel Kindell, Associate Employment Solicitor, says “When something like this happens, it is a huge shock. People have been treated appallingly and will no doubt be worried about paying their bills and how they are going to secure other work in a very competitive environment. We want people to know that there is another route to gaining compensation for what has happened. Whilst we cannot recover all of the financial loss people have suffered, a protective award claim could go some way towards it.”
Morrish Solicitors LLP regularly pursues protective award claims on behalf of employees. We recently won protective award claims for over 250 former City Link employees, over 100 Phones 4U employees and other companies, including Austin Reed, Turners Fine Foods, Paperlinx and Low Cost Travel. The individuals in these cases were made redundant without consultation and Morrish Solicitors LLP secured an Employment Tribunal Judgment for 90 days’ gross pay for each employee.
We are very experienced in such claims, assisting people with all shapes and sizes of problems at work, as well as representation in the Employment Tribunals (such as in Unfair Dismissal, discrimination and contractual claims) and Courts.
Employees should note that there is a general time limit of 3 months (less one day) from the date of the act complained of to bring most types of claims in the Employment Tribunals, subject to any extension by way of use of the ACAS Early Conciliation process. We are unable to give more detailed advice about time limits at this stage but employees should have regard to them. If missed, an employee will automatically be prevented from pursuing a claim.
If you have been made redundant from Monarch without consultation please read our Protective Award Claims FAQ document and complete our no-obligation online questionnaire for assistance with your case.
If you have any further questions, please email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you as soon as possible to discuss.
