ANOTHER LETTER FROM PKF

[Makeitfit]

Received another letter from PKF this morning more or less read the same except this one read "the Administrators on behalf of the company, are not making any of the workforce redundant although this should not be construed as the Joint Administrators adopting your contract of employment". Who the hell is my contract with ? a company thats gone bust.

Edited by Makeitfit on Wednesday 3rd January 10:04

[bob1179]

Its all bollox mate.

Hang in there and hopefully somthing good will happen soon. I know its not much consolation but everybody here is thinking about all of you guys and we all have our fingers crossed.

[Mr Freefall]

Makeitfit said:

Received another letter from PKF this morning more or less read the same except this one read "the Administrators on behalf of the company, are not making any of the workforce redundant although this should not be construed as the Joint Administrators adopting your contract of employment". Who the hell is my contract with ? a company thats gone bust.

Edited by Makeitfit on Wednesday 3rd January 10:04

What this is...

it looks like on paper the PKF are looking to sell the whole business on, which is the assets of the business. Now sometimes when this happens the staff of the company get TUPE'd over to the new owner, which means you get a continuation of service with the new employer. Now, if you are made redundant, then you cannot get TUPE (Tuepeed) over, and you lose all you continuation benefits.

Why they are not paying you is that from the eyes of the Administrators, you and the lowest ranking (sorry done mean to sound harsh) for payout from the sale of assets if this route is taken, and assets are sold, rather than company bought out lock stock.

This is just my take on it, I might be completely wrong, but I really hope that this gets solved quickly

I would phone PKF and ask to speak to the Audit Manager that is dealing with this, and see if you can make sense, or, get your union rep to do this for you.

As and employee of the company, you are a stakeholder, not many rights mind you, but still you are now a creditor as you are owed money from the company, and you are chasing your debt.

Mr F

[george 500]

You don't want to speak to the audit manager (an audit is totally separate and is conducted by Grant Thornton anyway). Ask to speak to a manager in Corporate Recovery. Lancaster is your nearest office (although they may not be the office that the project is operated from) and their number is Tel: [phone]. I suspect that they will not divulge any information to you however (nor are they obliged to do so). However as the man says you are owed money so don't be afraid to chase it.

[Horse_Apple]

I think that the administrators are obliged to try and sell the business as a going concern but I think you'll also find that they know they won't.

This is all a case of going through the motions to appease the unions and other enities and meet UK legal requirements.

NS would have withheld the names etc from this company and the site is owned by PW, so there are no real tangible assets but there are huge liabilities.

Would someone step up to the plate to buy thin air? What they would be buying would 200 employment contracts to build cars that can't be sold and under a different name.

All the valuable elements have actually been sold to Dom or witheld elsewhere.

The only advice that I could possibly offer is to club together and approach a professional advisor who can explain exactly what is going on and what you rights and options are. The sooner you do that the better.

You have to assume the worst, which is that you could be sitting there with no income for months while the administrators go through the motions before breaking it all up and booking their fees.

Please, find an advisor. You are not going to get any help from the company or the administrators and no one here is probably of the correct qualifications to be able to help. I also doubt that your union (those of you who do have one) will be much use to be honest.

Group together and get someone who can clearly explain everything that is going on and open up you options to you.

[george 500]

While the above is sensible I would caution you against ignoring your union. While they themselves will not have personal experience of this they will have access to other unions with experience. Also their services are free whereas any other form of advice will cost you.
If you do seek professional advice choose carefully, I have no doubt that there are employment specialists on here so it may be best to ask around on the forums

[Horse_Apple]

george 500 said:

While the above is sensible I would caution you against ignoring your union. While they themselves will not have personal experience of this they will have access to other unions with experience. Also their services are free whereas any other form of advice will cost you.
If you do seek professional advice choose carefully, I have no doubt that there are employment specialists on here so it may be best to ask around on the forums

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that the union should be ignored. Just suggesting that a 100% impartial professional would be in a better situation to give unbias advice and very quickly.

[Enigma.79]

I'm sooo jealous. I still haven't recieved my first letter yet. If it's not here by tomorrow I'm calling the factory. Not that it'll do much good, probably just get lied too like we have been for the last 12 months (Sigh!)