Former Woolworths staff angry at States ‘let-down’
Thursday 22nd January 2009, 2:56PM GMT.
FURIOUS Woolworths staff have criticised States Members after they controversially refused to back a compensation plan.
But there is still hope that former staff members will get almost £140,000 in compensation for the notice period they should have been given under Jersey employment law. The workers had hoped that States Members would vote yesterday on whether to accept a proposition to pay them up to £239,500 in redundancy and notice payments. But yesterday morning, following almost seven hours of debate on the proposition, Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf successfully proposed that Members end the debate without putting the matter to the vote.
The 30-18 vote in favour of moving to the next debate means that Members will have time to check the numbers before the proposition is debated again – but it also leaves the workers out of pocket.
In a statement issued to the press, the workers have called the States’ decision to use the procedural device to end the debate without a vote ‘deplorable’.
Social Security Minister Ian Gorst, who condemned administrators Deloitte for their ‘uncaring attitude to workers’ in his speech on Tuesday, has told staff that if they hand over their claims for notice period pay to the States, they will take the matter to court for them. That offer was made public only after St Lawrence Constable Deidre Mezbourian asked questions during the States debate on Tuesday.
Deputy Geoff Southern, who lodged the original proposition for compensation that was being debated, has now lodged a second proposal to pay out the notice money to staff. He wants the States to give them the cash – estimated at just under £140,000 – and then go after the administrators to claim it back in court.
• Picture: Former Woolworths staff with their petition outside the old store yesterday. Picture by Jon Guegan (00613045)
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I feel sorry for them, but no-one gets compensation from the States in any other job loss, so why should these guys?
“Deputy Geoff Southern, ….wants the States to give them the cash – estimated at just under £140,000 – and then go after the administrators to claim it back in court.”
Why don’t the woolies workers form a group and go after the administrators themselves? Rather than let a 3rd party chase – horses mouth and all that, plus it may save them time by doing it direct.
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You were let down by Woolworths, not the states!
The time you are spending moaning in St.Helier, you could be looking for jobs!
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My thoughts exactly, get over it!
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As much as i sympathise no-one else gets money from the States so why the constant press coverage which is just giving false hope to these people.
Expend as much effort in finding a new job instead of protesting.
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I guess you all have jobs then, something which is not so easy to find at the moment. How unsympathetic. The States are letting them down by having no redundancy laws in place. Landsbanki depositors have formed groups and got nowhere fast either through the States of Guernsey or Jersey or Deloittes. Make a redundancy law a very firm priority, especially in this day and age.
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in that case protest for the law to be put in place for if this happens in the future and don’t demand money off the states now
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As sympathetic as I am to their situation, there are other jobs out there at the moment and I think their time would be better used securing new employment… are staff in the UK being so looked after? My old firm went into liquidation and as a former employee I could get back all the money they owed me for untaken holiday etc, because staff members are preferential creditors. I don’t see why the States have to help them when they didn’t help anyone else that lost their jobs in the last few months
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OK, i think its time to move on !!!
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If the States were to pay them I would be totally disgusted that my hard earned taxes be given away in this manner. That would be the last straw for me. I am now retired and have not once asked for a penny from the states, lived in Jersey all my life. If this went ahead I would vote with my feet as Senator A.Brekon has said so many times and leave my beloved island for good and pay my taxes elsewhere.
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If Deloittes have broken the Jersey Employment Law they certainly should be forced to pay the Woolworths staff what they are due from the company’s assets in Jersey. There’s no use having legislation if we are not going to enforce it.
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J G – I do have a job; I went for 4 interviews last year to get this – I was out of work for 5 months – I didn’t ask for anything from the States then, so I kinda know what it’s like to be unemployed in Jersey, and wanting to work. Unlike those who are unemployed and don’t want to work.
It’s been the States way for many years, and it’s only now that we, as the public, are being made aware of the implications that law has. I agree something should be done for the future, but not a knee jeck reaction. That’s not what I pay my taxes for.
And I do think the media are playing on this way, way, WAY too much!
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They should never have been given false hope by Southern and Breckon in the first place. If the Law states no redundancy in Jersey, then you get off your backside and hunt for a job as soon as possible. This hanging around by Woolworths staff under an assumption that tax payers will give them charity handouts was simply naive.
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How can you possibly give woolworths staff a pay out??
What about every person that has been made redundant over the last x number of years…shouldn’t they be entitled to a pay out to if this is the case??
What makes woolworths staff so special…
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J G, I think the point is that if the States have let the Woolworths’ staff down then they have let others down also, why should the Woolworths’ staff get preferential treatment? Obviously they shouldn’t.
If Woolworths have broken the law then I second the person that says let the workers go after them, not the States.
And just in case you wonder, I’ve been made redundant 3 times, only once did I get some pitiful redundancy pay (I was in small firms so there wasn’t a large group of people that could get together and take the companies to court!), and I didn’t expect the UK Government to bail me out. And I can’t even take out insurance to cover situations like redundancy due to a medical condition I was born with that has never caused me to take even one day off work! Some of the Woolworths staff may have such insurance.
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Whatever sympathy I had for the woollies staff is fading in proportion to their incessant whinging.
There is a recession no one can afford to money away.
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