Our ref: BHS/CC/T337.TAG
Dear
I am pleased to report good news!
We appeared, on your behalf, at Manchester Employment Tribunal on
I have been in touch with the DTI office in
If you have already had a salary payment from the DTI earlier on this
year, then, that payment will be deducted also because you are only allowed a
maximum of 8 weeks salary payments in all from the DTI. Social Security payments might also be deducted.
After the DTI has paid you there will be a balance of monies still
owing to you. The remaining 34 days (90
days less 56 days) can be claimed from the administrator and I intend to make
that claim for you. However if you wish
me to do so you must fill in the Authority 3 form attached setting out the
details of your DTI payment. If you do not fill it out clearly and fully I
cannot promise to make the claim for you.
The balance of your weekly salary (above the £260 per week) might
be paid by the administrator as your claim may be preferential and take
precedence in the liquidation over ordinary creditors. It is, however, very unclear whether the
administrator has enough money. If there is not enough money in the pot you
will not be paid the difference.
D.T.I.
The DTI (Dept. of Trade and Industry) monies come directly to you from
the DTI. You do not need to contact the
DTI or take any steps to secure the money. Just make sure you fill in and
return to me the change of address form attached if you have moved in the last
18 months.
If you have changed your address within the last 18 months, fill
in and sign the attached form and send it to me.
A main reason for not paying an employee is that the DTI does not have
the employees
current address
I also enclose a form if you know of people who made no claim to either
the Tribunal or to the DTI. I may be able to help them even now with their
claim to the DTI.
I have other important pieces of news for you.
On 9th July 2004 following 4 days of hearings, the
Employment Tribunal Ordered that I may proceed with claims under the Transfer
of Undertaking Regulations (TUPE). The
application was fought very hard by the businesses that bought assets claims
from TAG, Claim 4 Ltd, Claim 24/7 Ltd, AIG Management (UK) Ltd and
Manchester Building Society.
I argued that these businesses should stand in the shoes of TAG and
your employment rights maintained for
example, to your full 8 weeks protective award uncapped and to your full
payments for loss of salary and notice periods, etc.
These businesses argued that they had not been properly joined into the
proceedings. I brought test cases for 3
TAG employees and supplemented these test cases with TUPE application cases for
all of you. The Tribunal recognised this
and exercised its discretion in your favour that all the businesses be
joined.
Since then I have given the matter careful consideration and indeed
taken advice from John Hendy QC who is one of a handful of top employment
specialists of Counsel in the Country.
The key question has been whether the dismissals were connected with the
transfers. Did the Administrator dismiss
you because of a possible transfer or was dismissal due to another reason?
I have taken John Hendy through the general position. He is of the opinion that there is not a sufficient
connection between the dismissal of
employees and the transfer of any parts of the business..
The Administrators overwhelming consideration was to stop further
costs being incurred as soon as possible rather than to dismiss employees in
order to make a business transfer more attractive to an identified
purchaser.
I have now a statement signed off by the administrator that the
principle reason for dismissals was insufficient money to pay salaries; nothing
more nothing less.
In any event, it appears the transferees did not enter into
negotiations with the Administrator for the purchase of assets until after the
dismissals had taken place.
Further, there is a real issue, whether the parts of the business
transferred to others were separate and identifiable to satisfy the
definition of undertaking under TUPE. If they are not undertakings the TUPE
application loses anyway.
I have therefore reached the view that pursuit of the TUPE claims is
not worthwhile. It might be that I am
able to negotiate an ex-gratia payment for some of you. If I am able to do so I will, but if not, I
will abandon all the TUPE claims on 7th January 2005. If you should
wish to proceed with a TUPE claim you will need to write to me before the 7th
January and tell me. Your letter should be sent by recorded delivery or in the
enclosed envelope
. I will notify the Tribunal that you wish to proceed with this part of
the claim and request that the Tribunal contacts you directly. I am not willing
to support the TUPE claim further. It
is, in my view, now pointless.
There are a relatively small number of you who were employed for over a
year by the company. Those employees in
theory have an easy unfair dismissal claim.
It is easy because procedurally the rules were not followed when you
were dismissed and you should win such a claim.
I have decided however that it is not economic to pursue these claims taking
account of the monies that these
employees will be receiving from the DTI
and that the compensatory award will be
payable by a company in administration. There may or may not be a dividend for
creditors announced by the administrator - I do not know.
The award is likely to be limited in any event because the Tribunal
will in my view find that had the procedural rules been followed with proper
consultation there would have been a redundancy anyway within months.
The compensation award on an unfair dismissal would fall into the
administrators pot. It is very unclear
that it would be met in part or full by the administrator even if it was
pursued .
I appreciate that for many of you who worked for the company for more
than a year, the £260 a week figure from the DTI is derisory nevertheless
having secured your protective award and bearing in mind that TAG is insolvent,
I am not willing to run individual unfair dismissal claims in such speculative
circumstances.
You may however proceed with your unfair dismissal claim yourself.
Enclosed is an authority to complete about your claim, if any, for unfair
dismissal which please return to me.
If you want to go ahead and you had more than one years service with
the company, you can do so yourself.
With regards to salary outstanding the same principles apply- I will not
be continuing to act.
If you do not contact me
with the signed authority 2 that you wish to pursue these claims yourself, I
will advise the Tribunal that I am no longer acting here and invite the
Tribunal to write to you about abandoning your claim(s).
A Trust was set up in 2001 for the benefit of all TAG employees, past,
present and future. This Trust has £9.2
million in it and growing! It may
be worth as much as £3,000 to £4,000 to every one of you.
The monies are being held in Jersey and the administrator is trying to
get his hands on the monies for all the creditors. It looks like the board
of TAG has tried itself to get its hands on this money. This is unfair. The
monies should go only to the employees and be shared amongst you.
I am currently holding the fort and opposing this for you. I am in detailed correspondence with a Jersey
lawyer about the Trust and am about to receive the papers in the Court case in
Jersey now unravelling about the money.
I need funding and instructions for this case which is quite separate
and distinct from the Tribunal matter. I cannot work pro bono (for free) on
this issue.
If enough of you send £75 ( that is £63.82 plus VAT) payable to
Salford Employment Law Industrial Injuries Campaign in the supplied envelope
this will enable me to deal with matters.
All the other work I have done, by arrangement with the TUC, is for
free. I hope that you can see that £75
is not a lot to ask you for, bearing in
mind that my firm has already written off 10s of £1,000 in fees.
To sum up:
1.
Send cheque(s)
totalling £75 ( you may send 2 cheques for £37.50 each payable a month apart )
to cover your contribution to claiming in the Employee Benefit Trust
2.
Complete the questionnaires and return
them.
I had better say a word about client care. If you have any complaint please address that
complaint firstly to me, and otherwise to the complaints partner, Richard
Rose.
I have general control of your claim, but day-to-day management of the
claim is worked by my assistant, Calvin Carrington, a trainee solicitor.
Finally, I need to say a word about communication with my firm. Over
the holiday period we will be closed until the 4th January 2005. All authority
forms must be sent by recorded delivery or placed in the envelope
provided. Act straight away.
Other communications should be emailed to slaterb@slaterellison.co.uk. I
cannot promise to take individual phone calls.
Regards
Yours sincerely
c.c.
1
authority 1 form to pursue my share of the £9.2m
claim
2
authority 2 form to pursue unfair dismissal salary
claims
3
authority 3 form to recover deficits in pay from the
administrator
4
change of address sheet/non claimers sheet
23 12 04
CHANGE OF ADDRESS
SHEET
I confirm that I have moved address in the last 18 months.
My new address is My old address was I moved house on I wish the DTI to send all payments directly to my new address Dated Signed. Print name: Telephone number(s)
December 2004
Slater Ellison
22/24 Broad Street
Bury
BL
NON-CLAIMERS SHEET
The following former TAG worker has not made a claim before and would
now like to make a claim.
Name Address Phone number(s) e-mail address Date of birth Company worked for Job Title Amount earned (gross and net) Date started at Company (please name) Place of work NI Number (if available):
Please provide details below
December 23 2004
Slater Ellison
22/24 Broad Street
Bury
BL9 0DA
Authority 1 form CHEQUES PAYMENT INSTRUCTION FORM
I enclose cheque(s) for £75 payable to Salford Employment Law
Industrial Injuries Campaign, being the only payment required from me to pursue
my claim for my share of the Employees Benefits Trust.
No further payment will be required from me to pursue the Trust
I instruct Slater Ellison or its solicitor appointees to pursue my
claim.
I had no knowledge of the existence of the Trust Fund.
Signed
phone numbers
Address:
Dated
2004
To: Slater Ellison 22/24
Broad Street Bury BL9 0DA
I wish to pursue my claim for unfair dismissal and/or salary outstanding myself without further support from Slater Ellison. I understand that if I do not return this authority signed these claims will be abandoned.
(To be returned by 7th January 2004)
Signed
phone numbers
Address
Dated
To: Slater Ellison 22/24
Broad Street Bury BL9 0DA
I have received £ .. from the DTI. This sum is made up as follows .. (set out how the calculation is made up)
I have a deficit of £ (set out how this is made up)
I have stapled the DTI papers to this authority.
Signed
phone numbers
Address
Dated
DTI reference
To Slater Ellison Bury BL9 ODA
23 12 04