£125,000 payout for staff kept in dark over collapse

WORKERS at a company that went bust have received a total of more than £125,000 after complaining bosses kept them in the dark over the business’s future.

Trim Technology and Services Ltd, of Exhall, Coventry, went into creditors’ voluntary liquidation in September last year.

Now 35 former employees have successfully made legal claims at Birmingham Employment Tribunal.

They accused the firm, which made soft trims for vehicles, of breaching the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act.

Tribunal Judge Mr Robin Broughton has awarded them 90 days protective awards from September last year after deciding the company failed to comply with the requirements of the act.

A protective award is the legal term for wages approved as compensation after employers fail to keep their workforce fully informed of the employment situation under the terms of the Act.

A protective award, approved by the Government, has a ceiling of just over £300 a week. That works out at about £3,600 for each of the five claimants over a 90 day period.

The former employees complained they were not told what was happening with their jobs until shortly before the firm ceased trading. They complained to their union representatives who made enquiries about the situation.

A resolution issued last September said: “The company cannot, by reason of its liabilities, continue its business and that it is advisable to wind up the same. Accordingly, the company is being wound up voluntarily.”

The firm was formed in 1995 and had two directors. Trim Technology was said to have employed 49 people at its peak and in 2014 had a turnover of between two and five million pounds.

Tony Mitchell of Cranfield Business Recovery Ltd of Harry Weston Road, Coventry, has been appointed liquidator.