Company in liquidation

[Thom987]

SWMBO was called in to a "sales meeting" during the week, to be told that the company had gone into liquidation. She had to surrender her car, laptop etc and was left to find her own way home, some 90 miles away. She is owed a months wages, holiday pay, expenses and commission and will probably not see a penny.
She has some stock belonging to the company at home, can she legally sell the stock to recoup some of her losses?

[randlemarcus]

Legally, probably not.

She might want to start charging storage for those items, until they are collected in return for a brown envelope full of cash. IIRC, there's a reasonably short time before she is OK to dispose of the goods ,in lieu of the storage charges.

I am not a lawyer, but I'd say her chances of seeing the money was slim, especially given the car trick.

[Thom987]

randlemarcus said:

I am not a lawyer, but I'd say her chances of seeing the money was slim, especially given the car trick.

The car thing really got to me. She was left standing in an Industrial Estate, 20 miles the far side of Dublin, with not even an offer of a lift to the train station. Quite a few of the staff were left stranded like that. Strangely, the HR manager rang the following day and asked if she would come back to work for the liquidator. They seem to believe the company will be sold as a going concern. The rent hadnt been paid on the warehouse in over a year, so this just didnt happen overnight.
I would be of the opinion to sell the stock to try to recoup some of the money owed. It will not be returned to the company.

[randlemarcus]

Thom987 said:

Strangely, the HR manager rang the following day and asked if she would come back to work for the liquidator. They seem to believe the company will be sold as a going concern.

This alters things slightly. Jump at the chance, but next time there's an unscheduled sales meeting, leave the car at home, and you give her a lift

Unless the company is DeBeers, better a job in the hand than an argument over the Encyclopedia Brittanicas you are about to lob on Ebay...

[Thom987]

If she accepts the job, will she get what she is owed? Its around €6/7k all in.
To me it seems very strange, on Wednesday the company goes bust and a day later she is asked to come back on Monday. Is this normal when a company goes into liquidation?

[Sheets Tabuer]

I worked for a company that went into administration, everyone was sacked on the spot including me but I was re-hired a few minutes later on about 5x my salary to run the computer systems down, it took months

Everyone got the cash they were owed though when they sold the assets.

[randlemarcus]

She's a darned sight more likely to get the money than someone who has walked away. It can't hurt.

[Engineer1]

I worked for a company that went bump, 2 years later I have received owed pay, and it looks like the remainder I will get back at 6p in the pound which is a total piss take given it is the unfair dismissal payout.

[lestag]

Thom987 said:

If she accepts the job, will she get what she is owed? Its around €6/7k all in.
To me it seems very strange, on Wednesday the company goes bust and a day later she is asked to come back on Monday. Is this normal when a company goes into liquidation?

I think you will find she will be being paid by the liquidators , but hey , is better than not working

[Eric Mc]

Be careful. You are asking questions about a Republic of Ireland based business on a mainly UK based forum.

The details of insolvency law in Ireland will be quite different in many ways to what happens in the UK.

[lestag]

Eric Mc said:

Be careful. You are asking questions about a Republic of Ireland based business on a mainly UK based forum.

The details of insolvency law in Ireland will be quite different in many ways to what happens in the UK.

OK, so this would be useful reading for the OP ?
http://www.liquidation.ie/Liquidations/Liquidation...
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1963/en/act/pub/003...
if the OH goes back to work, find out who the employer is and their obligations

[Thom987]

Thanks for the above. I`ll take it on board, before I sell the stock to cover the loss. ;-)

[Simon Brooks]

First reaction is to take anything that is on offer and sit tight to see what is likely to happen going forward.

With regard to the stock at home (if the same a s UK law) legally it forms part of the balance sheet of either the new company or the liquidators, depending on how the closure is being handled.

[JensenA]

Just keep quiet about the stuff she has at home.

[shimmey69]

Stock!!! What stock???

The old company collected that years ago!!!! ;0)

[M400 NBL]

So did she take the job and get what was owed?