Advice over redundancy matters

[eggchaser1987]

Evening all, I hate to be the person coming on PH for advice all the time but it seems to be somewhere where there is always helpful answers.

I used to work for a construction company (a number of us are in the same situation) and it went bust end of May. We were all given redundancy with immediate effect, no notice period or anything.

We are still waiting payment for the last month worked, redundancy pay and notice pay. The company has not yet been made insolvent and it has been further work on the premises.

We have pushed for insolvency of the company so we can claim any pay owed but nothing has come from it. We have gone to a tribunal but this I understand is not a fast process.

Is there anything that can be done so the employees can get any owed back pay etc or is it just a long drawn out process where the ex employers try and wiggle out of paying anything.

If it makes any difference we have had a number of emails from the nest pension scheme we were enrolled on stating they have missed payments into these as well.

Hope all of that makes sense and thanks In advance.

[StevieBee]

eggchaser1987 said:

The company has not yet been made insolvent and it has been further work on the premises.

If a company goes into liquidation it must no longer trade unless doing so is likely to increase the return for creditors. Assuming this is the case here and that the company is formally in liquidation (as in an Insolvency Practitioner has been appointed), then I'm afraid there's little you can do to speed up the process other than speak to the Insolvency Practitioner directly. There's no legal time frame for a company to be liquidated but 24 months is normally the max you can expect.

I believe that the maximum employees can expect is £800 plus any holiday pay - but this is assuming there's money left in the pot after secured creditors (banks, HMRC, etc).

[Pegscratch]

StevieBee said:

I believe that the maximum employees can expect is £800 plus any holiday pay - but this is assuming there's money left in the pot after secured creditors (banks, HMRC, etc).

Only HMRC get their mitts on the pot before employees, and it's a lot more than £800 depending what is in the pot. RPS will cover an amount too, but it then faces issues if the company haven't yet been liquidated.

[eggchaser1987]

Thanks, seems like a waiting game now then. I think the employer has taken the piss regarding they way they have gone about going through the process.

They seem to be putting everything off and waiting for the last minute to do anything and not informing employees what is happening. If it were a small amount of money owed then it would be something I would consider writing off but it's into ££££'s so hopefully we will get what we are owed.

[edc]

Is the company actually insolvent? If so
https://www.gov.uk/claim-redundancy

[eggchaser1987]

No the company is not yet insolvent, that's the problem we have. The directors essentially made all employees redundant as they have no they 'have no money' not paid suppliers and not paid employees.

[Sy1441]

Pegscratch said:

Only HMRC get their mitts on the pot before employees, and it's a lot more than £800 depending what is in the pot. RPS will cover an amount too, but it then faces issues if the company haven't yet been liquidated.

Not necessarily, there could be a floating charge placed over assets by the bank which would put them in front of employees.