EMPLOYEES of a company who were made redundant and told to clear their desks out of the blue are to be awarded compensation.

An employment tribunal found that Drinkmaster had failed to enter into any meaningful consultation with its staff at the beginning of September 2020, when the company announced it would be going into liquidation.

Of the 22 employees affected, 16 took their claim to court and were successfully represented by specialist solicitor Nuala Toner.

“Many of the staff were hopeful that business would pick up and were expecting to return to work as they had been furloughed at the time of the dismissals. No-one was given any warning of the dismissals let alone consultation,” said Ms Toner.

“Drinkmaster didn’t actually enter liquidation until September 22, which rather begs the question why the claimants were dismissed three weeks earlier and why this period could not have been used for consultation.

“ Whilst consultation may not make any difference in insolvency situations, the aim of it is to either avoid or mitigate the effects of the dismissals; for example by giving employees an opportunity to find alternative work.”

All but two of the staff had been on furlough when the shock news was announced in September 2020.

One had arrived when called in with a sense of optimism, thinking that she was going to be told the date of her return to work.

Around ten of the staff had each given at least 30 years of their working lives to Drinkmaster, as one long-serving former employee explained.

“I had invested my whole life in that place and I really cared about it. The phone call came telling us to come in and then we were told to clear our desks. It was such a shock. And it caused a lot of stress to people that had to pay rent and bills.

“When the owner came and asked me if I was ok, I replied no, I am not alright, I am just a number to you. He didn’t say anything to that.”

The former employee that spoke to The Cornish Times said that many of the workers have kept in touch with each other over the past year and that “most have moved on and found new jobs”.

“I’ve got a job that I really like now, I am a lot happier and there is less pressure. I am delighted that we have won this case – but I was adamant that we were right, and that we would.”

Drinkmaster was bought out of administration around three years ago by an affiliate of the NI snack company Tayto, the Montagu Group, but remained registered as a separate limited company. Companies who propose to make more than 20 staff redundant have a duty to undertake meaningful consultation under the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act.

Finding in favour of the 16 employees, Judge Roper awarded the maximum possible compensation of 90 days’ pay to each. As Drinkmaster itself has very little funds, this money will be paid out by the Secretary of State, a situation which the former employee feels “stinks”.

The Government will now award a maximum of £544 per week for eight weeks. This could equate to almost £70,000 in total, but is likely to be less, as compensation will correlate to each person’s weekly wage.

It was perfectly above board in late 2020 for Tayto to be able to purchase the assets held at the Drinkmaster site from the liquidator, but this, feels the former employee, is similarly “a loophole that ought to be shut”.

“I think Tayto has walked away scot free – I think it stinks that the taxpayer has to pay the compensation,” she said.

Tayto has been reported in the Belfast Telegraph as making revenues of £210m in the year to June 2020 with its top-paid director receiving pay of more than £500k.

Roksana Bairamova had been export manager at Drinkmaster for six years. She describes Tayto as “unethical”.

She says that she had asked her boss repeatedly if things were going downhill, as with no family support network in the UK, and needing to send money to her parents abroad, she felt losing her job would leave her very vulnerable.

She says that in the run-up to September 2020 she was told more than once that everything was fine.

“Now, I feel much more calm and settled,” she said, “but at the time I felt it was very unethical what they did.

“I was there for six years but some people were there for 35, 40.

“In 2017, we had all decided to sacrifice 20% of our pay to help keep the company going. We were asked for solutions, and this was put to us as an option we had to take to avoid redundancies.

“When Tayto took over, I feel they did not take time to understand the Drinkmaster business. They were a long way away, they left us alone.

“Business is business but you still need to value people – without people, your business is not very much.”

The Cornish Times approached Tayto but the company said it did not wish to comment.