Protective Award

Protective Award

Sadly, in today’s economic climate, large groups of employees can find themselves being made redundant either because of company mergers or their employer falling into administration or liquidation. SDM Legal’s employment department regularly advise groups of employees on this issue and are often featured in the national press re large group claims.

In addition to claims of Unfair Dismissal and/or a Redundancy Payment, you may also be entitled to a Protective Award if your former employer proposed to make 20 or more employees redundant but did not collectively consult beforehand with a recognised Trade Union or employee representatives.

The penalty for not doing so is up to 90 days’ gross pay for each affected employee. If your former employer is still trading you can bring a claim for a Protective Award and also for Unfair Dismissal.

If, however, your former employer is no longer trading (e.g. it has been put into liquidation or administration) you may still pursue a claim for a Protective Award as this is guaranteed by the Government for up to 8 weeks’ pay, subject to a statutory weekly cap currently set at around £508 making a total of £4064.

Unlike other payments guaranteed by the Government when an employer ceases trading (such as a redundancy payment) in order to claim a Protective Award from the Government, employees have to obtain an Employment Tribunal judgment.

At SDM Legal we specialise in advising employees who have been made redundant and in bringing Employment Tribunal claims for Protective Awards. We can help employees to bring a claim together as a group, usually on a no win-no fee basis.

To contact us regarding bringing a claim against your employer, either as an individual claim or as part of a group, please fill in our online contact form or call us on 01524 237145. There is a very strict time limit of 3 months for bringing Employment Tribunal claims so please contact us as soon as possible.