Employees immediately made redundant as Clugston Group collapsed into administration have instructed lawyers to bring forward a special claim to cover wages lost.
The Scunthorpe construction giant hit the wall a week ago, with 150 staff immediately losing their jobs as KPMG was drafted in to try and rescue the business and sell off the assets.
Now they are seeking a protective award claim at an employment tribunal, having not been consulted on redundancy.
A number of staff who have left St Vincent House have contacted spcialist SDM Legal.
It has previously successfully handled claims for former employees of Monarch Airlines, BHS, City Link, Multi-York and Pulse Flexible Packaging.
Carl Moran and Hannah Durham, directors at the Lancashire firm, are seeking to recover eight weeks鈥 pay for each employee as compensation for the company鈥檚 failure to consult.
Mr Moran said: 鈥淭he collapse of the Clugston Group is a devastating event for its employees and this will be a highly distressing and uncertain time for them especially at this time of year. I am sure that many will be worried about their rightful legal entitlements and I very much hope that the Protective Award we are claiming for them, which is compensation in addition to any redundancy payments, will make things easier for them.鈥
The cases can take six months to be heard, with a judgement from a court then passed to the Secretary of State for Business, Andrea Leadsom, with The Insolvency Service covering any award.
It is capped at a maximum payment of 拢525 a week.
Clugston Group, an 82-year-old third generation business and pillar of the Scunthorpe business community, failed to recover from a loss in 2017, with administrators outlining how the 拢176 million turnover business had sunk further into the red through a number of large and complex energy from waste contracts, 鈥渁ccentuated by the insolvency of a key sub contractor鈥.
On appointment 150 of the 412 staff left. Since then interest parties have come forward, with discussions ongoing as management and the KPMG officials work to secure ongoing contracts.
Clugston Distribution Services Ltd and Clugston Estates Limited, the tanker and property management arms, are not affected by the administration, and are continuing to trade under the control of the directors.
KPMG declined to comment on the action.
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