{"id":822564,"date":"2025-01-28T06:11:31","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T12:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/28\/collapsed-contractors-employees-win-compensation\/"},"modified":"2025-01-28T06:11:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T12:11:31","slug":"collapsed-contractors-employees-win-compensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/28\/collapsed-contractors-employees-win-compensation\/","title":{"rendered":"Collapsed contractor\u2019s employees win compensation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Padlock_administrations_generic.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n

Former employees of a contractor that went into administration last spring have received compensation because they were not consulted before they lost their jobs.<\/p>\n

The 20 former employees of ARJ Construction all received 90 days\u2019 pay after the Employment Tribunal found the contractor did not consult them or any union representatives before they lost their jobs.<\/p>\n

Documents published by the Employment Tribunal on Friday (24 January) show the 20 workers were dismissed \u201cwithout any consultation having taken place\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stevenage-based ARJ Construction \u201cfailed to comply\u201d with section 188 of the Trade Union & Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, the Employment Tribunal found.<\/p>\n

The section stipulates that, if employers plan to dismiss 20 or more employees within a 90-day period, they should consult with employee representatives at least 30 days before the dismissals take place.<\/p>\n

The employees all lost their jobs \u201con or within 90 days of 29 April 2024\u201d, the documents show. ARJ Construction initially filed a notice of intention to enter<\/a> administration on 30 April.<\/p>\n

It then appointed administrators from FRP Advisory on 9 May, according to Companies House.<\/p>\n

Those granted compensation include the firm\u2019s former operations director Shaun Sheldrake and its former head of digital construction James Dixon. Several trainees were also involved in the tribunal case. The documents do not reveal how much compensation was granted to the former employees.<\/p>\n

The firm generally focused on projects in the South East worth between \u00a310m and \u00a360m.<\/p>\n

Construction News <\/em>reported in June that the contractor owed \u00a3940,000 to its former employers in redundancy and notice pay<\/a> when it went under. At the time, the administrators had received claims for \u00a312.5m from its subcontractors and supply chain \u2013 but documents released in November showed that had risen to \u00a344.5m, with the potential to rise further.<\/p>\n

In November, the administrators said a dividend for the unsecured creditors was \u201clikely\u201d but that the \u201ctiming and quantum of such dividend is unknown\u201d.<\/p>\n

That would depend on how much money the administrators could gather in retentions, on how ARJ Construction\u2019s existing contracts could be resolved, and whether ARJ Construction would receive legal claims with regard to those live contracts.<\/p>\n

There was considerable surprise when ARJ Construction issued its notice of intention to appoint administrators, with one construction market analyst saying the notice \u201ccame out of the blue\u201d. In particular, they pointed to ARJ Construction\u2019s positive net cash balance of \u00a320m in its latest accounts.<\/p>\n

Revenue at the contractor also soared by 61 per cent from \u00a372.7m to \u00a3117m in the same year.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0the Hertfordshire company\u2019s cost of sales soared from \u00a359.3m to \u00a3101.6m, amid what directors described as \u201cincreasing inflation and labour challenges across the sector\u201d.<\/p>\n

CN<\/em> has previously reported the issues faced by some employees\u00a0when big contractors go into administration<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Joshua Stein<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former employees of a contractor that went into administration last spring have received compensation because they were not consulted before they lost their jobs. The 20 former employees of ARJ Construction all received 90 days\u2019 pay after the Employment Tribunal found the contractor did not consult them or any union representatives before they lost their<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":822565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42397,22553],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-822564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-collapsed","8":"category-contractors"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}