Abandon shirts
Pub boss accused of mistreating his staff owed £120k before clothes firm went bust
A pub tycoon at the centre of a missing pensions scandal previously walked away from thousands of pounds of debt at a clothing brand he owned.
Richard Davies is one of three businessmen behind the Abandon Ship and MacMerry bar chain who have been accused of the “systematic mistreatment” of dozens of staff in Glasgow and Dundee.
The Sunday Mail told last week how a number of employees claim pension contributions were taken from their wages but not paid into a retirement fund.
A litany of other complaints include unpaid holiday wages, sexual harassment not properly investigated and coronavirus regulations not followed.
We can now reveal Davies ran ASA Retail Ltd with codi rector Duncan Sweeny, sel l ing Aba ndon Sh i p branded garments sold by retailers such as ASOS and in a shop at Glasgow’s Princes
Square.
The firm folded and made staff redundant while owing almost £120,000 to 12 creditors.
One supplier of T- shirts claimed they had been left seriously out of pocket while they said Davies simply continued his business under another company name – Hard Grind Ltd.
Bryan Simpson, of Unite Hospitality, said: “Six weeks after we sent a shocking collective grievance backed up by a plethora of irrefutable evidence, we are still waiting on any substantial update on the sexual misconduct invest igation which was promised by the directors.
“Our members are still owed thousands in unpaid holiday pay, pensions and tax, with directors completely ignoring requests for payment.
“Hearing there are historical financial issues is not surprising but still worrying.
“We need directors to stop burying their heads in the sand, to pay workers what they are owed and to engage with the union, which represents a majority of their workforce.”
Davies was also a director of Easttradingco Ltd, which folded around the same time as
ASA, and Companies House records show he has been the director of four other dissolved firms.
The MacMerry chain, run by Phi l Donaldson and AJ McMenemy, includes Dundee bars Draffens and Bird And Bear plus The Luchador in Glasgow.
The entrepreneurs also operate the Abandon Ship bars in Glasgow and Dundee with Davies, who frequently flaunts his luxury lifestyle on social media.
The businessmen have been accused of mistreating about 60 workers in Scotland at their 13 bars.
Joel Galbraith, 28, a former sous chef at Abandon Ship in Gla sgow, i s one of the employees demanding to know what has happened to his pension.
Pay slips seen by the Sunday Mail show contributions were taken from his wages but he says they have never been paid into a Nest pension fund account.
Another worker has told how she was contacted by HMRC who were telling her she owed more than £ 2000 in tax after a period of being employed with MacMerry.
McMenemy and Donaldson set up MacMer r y 300 in 2010 before later going into business with Davies.