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‘We should get cash too’, say ex-Woolies staff
Woolworths
STAFF who were made redundant following the collapse of Woolworths have demanded a change in the law after a court ruling denied them thousands of pounds in compensation.
The plea comes after a High Court judge awarded almost £68 million to workers sacked when the company collapsed three years ago, but said workers in smaller stores were not entitled to a payout.
Now, an online petition has been launched in a bid to reverse the decision and ex-workers from the old Hunstanton store have called for the public to back their fight.
Katie Fuller, who lost her sales assistant’s job when the store closed in January 2009, said: “We were one of the top earning stores at Christmas 2008 and to say we don’t have the same rights (as other staff) is not fair.”
Last month, £67.8 million was awarded to around 24,000 former Woolworths workers who were sacked when the chain collapsed.
The award, which amounts to 60 days’ pay for each member of staff, was made after lawyers for Usdaw successfully argued the firm’s administrators had failed to consult them before making employees redundant.
But the payout does not include staff who worked at stores where fewer than 20 redundancies were made, which includes the workforce of the branches in both Hunstanton and Downham. Employees from the old Lynn store are entitled to compensation under the ruling.
An Usdaw spokesman said they were “highly likely” to appeal against that part of the ruling, because they believe it may breach European law.
A similar ruling was made in relation to the Ethel Austin chain last November, in which workers at their former Lynn store were also denied compensation on the same grounds.
Miss Fuller said she and her partner Liam Cross, who also worked at Woolworths in Hunstanton, had lost out on around £3,000 in compensation. Her mother and sister, who were part-time employees, have also been denied payouts.
She said: “I wouldn’t take it away from the people who have got it. They deserve it, but it shouldn’t be fair that people who worked just as hard or harder than the people at larger stores.”
The petition, which has been set up on the government’s e-petitions website, says the court ruling is unfair and calls for public support to reverse the law under which it was made.
Around 370 people have so far signed. If sufficient numbers give their support, the issue could be debated in Parliament.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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