Employment Partner and Solicitor Alan Lewis at Pearson Solicitors and Financial Advisers has secured a judgment for the claimants against Metamorph Group Services Ltd (“MGSL”).
MGSL was a group service company that serviced various law firms that were closed down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) in December 2022. It provided marketing, compliance, IT, finance, and HR services to all law firms in the group.
The Employment Tribunal ruled in favour of the 70 claimants, making a Protective Award cumulatively valued at approximately £570,000.
A Protective Award is an award of compensation of up to 90 days’ gross pay, which can be awarded by an Employment Tribunal when an employee fails to collectively inform and consult its workforce of twenty or more employees from the same establishment that they have been dismissed on the grounds of redundancy.
On 29 November 2022, the majority of employees were informed that MGSL was being placed into voluntary liquidation, that liquidators had been appointed and their employment was being terminated with immediate effect.
There was no consultation with the claimants and no advance warning or notice was given. The Tribunal ruled this was in breach of section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (“TULRCA”).
Alan Lewis led the claims on the basis that the correct redundancy procedures were not followed said upon receiving the judgment: “This is a real triumph for the claimants and on a personal level, this is particularly satisfying as many of the claimants are former colleagues of mine who were employed to support Linder Myers Solicitors, one of the numerous law firm brands that collapsed as part of the group.”
Alan added: “Now the judgment has been issued, the Protective Award Claim team at Pearson are taking steps to ensure that each claimant receives that part of their award that is guaranteed by the government’s Redundancy Payments Service.”