Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Workers read of job losses in Tele
FURIOUS workers claim they they were “shafted” by their employers after learning their jobs were being axed in the Tele.
Last week Fishers Laundry confirmed it would be shutting its Perth plant with 84 jobs also axed at the Inveralmond Industrial Estate.
The Cupar-based company said the site had been mothballed since the start of the lockdown, and a consultation had been ongoing since the beginning of last month on the permanent future of the plant.
However, one worker has since claimed staff were in the dark about the decision by their employer.
The staff member, who did not want to be named, accused the company of showing zero loyalty to staff despite some having worked there for more than 20 years. He added that the majority of the workers only learned they were to lose their jobs after reading about it in the Tele at the weekend.
He said: “We have been shafted by our employers and treated no better than cattle.
“The company has claimed they got in touch with all the workers to let them know.
“That is just not true. The first I, and many of my colleagues, knew was what we read in the press.
“We had been aware that a consultation process had begun on May 11. We were told that would last 30 days. There was a group formed to represent the workers.
“This latest announcement is news to us.”
Fishers has insisted that a “workers’ council” was set up, made up of 10 staff representatives, who met with management four times during the consultation.
The company says the decision to close the plant was announced to the group on Friday and was supposed to be then passed on to the rest of the staff.
The firm said that each worker was now involved in an individual redundancy consultation but declined to comment further on the nature of the terms of the packages.