BHS workers share £1m payout over failed redundancy process
24 April 2017
The Guardian has reported that a group of former BHS workers have altogether won up to £1m in compensation over the summary way they were made redundant when the retailer collapsed.
A London employment tribunal awarded 110 employees at the firm’s head office up to 90 days’ wages after their lawyers successfully argued that the company did not conduct a proper consultation process with them ahead of their dismissal.
The employees were represented by the law firm JWK, which successfully argued that BHS failed to fulfil its legal duty to consult with staff for at least 45 days before making them redundant when the retailer collapsed last April.
The tribunal ruled there had been “a complete failure to consult” and that the claimants should receive the maximum protective award.
JWK brought the claim against BHS and the government on behalf of former staff. The business department therefore will have to hand the staff the equivalent of 40 days’ pay, and the defunct company’s estate will be liable for the remaining 50 days’ money. Payments will vary in size depending on salaries but the government’s contribution is capped at £3,800 per person
When BHS collapsed into administration a year ago, with the loss of 11,000 job losses, it was the biggest high-street failure since that of Woolworths, which went into administration in 2008. The retailer had been owned by Sir Philip Green for 15 years until he sold it to Dominic Chappell, a former bankrupt, for just £1 in March 2015.