Former staff set to take action against firm which collapsed owing £7.1m
Former employees of an East Midlands-based environmental and health and safety services firm which slipped into administration back in October could be in line for a £4,500 pay-out if they can prove they weren’t consulted with before they were made redundant.
TheBusinessDesk.com understands Warwickshire-based Nuala Law is preparing a claim for around a dozen claimants – but would like to hear from other former employees of Challen Commercial Investigations, which traded as Ensafe Consultants from its headquarters in Daventry, Northamptonshire. The firm also had an office in Burton, following the acquisition of geo-environmental consultancy Pam Brown Associates.
Other sites included Manchester, Plymouth and Hamilton, in Scotland.
Incorporated in 1997, the company offered a range of asbestos, health and safety, geo-environmental, air quality and training and compliance services.
Ensafe collapsed after a bid by the adminstrators, Evelyn Partners, working in conjunction with company bosses, to find a buyer for the firm failed.
Documents seen by TheBusinessDesk.com show that over 100 staff were made redundant prior to be Evelyn being placed into administration.
Nuala Toner of Nuala Law told TheBusinessDesk.com: “When a company makes more than 20 people redundant within a 90-day period they have to undertake at least 30 days consultation. We don’t believe Challen complied with this duty.
“If we can show this to be correct this is a breach of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act an employment tribunal can order compensation be paid to the employees.”
If Challen were solvent this claim would be worth up to 90 days’ gross pay. As the company is in administration the Redundancy Payments Service will cover the first eight weeks of this compensation up to a maximum of eight weeks.
Toner added: “To be eligible employees need to take the first steps in bringing a claim within three months of their dismissal. This is quite a tight deadline that is strictly enforced. We currently have about a dozen claimants but would like to make the remaining employees aware of this claim as it is easily overlooked and would urge them to get in contact with us ASAP.”
When the firm failed, HMRC were owed almost £3m. The chances of the Revenue seeing their cash have been described as “remote” by administrators, while unsecured creditors will also miss out. In total, Ensafe collapsed owing almost £7.1m – £5.5m of which creditors are unlikely to see again.
