Clugston Construction/Services

Protective Award cases members of our Employment team have acted on: Clugston Construction/Services

Three of the companies within the Clugston Group; Clugston Construction Limited, Clugston Group Limited and Clugston Services Limited entered into administration in December 2019.

The business was made up of various companies involved in construction, civil engineering, logistics, property development and facilities management and operated across 25 sites. It was reported that the companies had been struggling with losses on their energy-from-waste contracts.

The business, operating out of its head office in Scunthorpe, employed more than 600 people.

On 6^th December 2019, most employees were called into a meeting with appointed administrators, KPMG, and informed of the administration. Around 150 staff members were made redundant the same day.

Around 60 jobs were saved when employees were transferred to a French company, CNIM, with whom Clugston had previously collaborated with on various projects.

SDM Legal were instructed by around 60 former employees to pursue a Protective Award claim which was successfully concluded in July 2020.

A Protective Award is a compensatory payment relating to a failure to collectively consult with employees when making or proposing redundancies.

Under s.188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA), an employer is obligated to collectively consult with its employees when proposing to make redundancies. As the company were proposing to make more than 100 employees redundant, the consultation period should have lasted over 45 days. As the employees were not consulted with in any capacity regarding their redundancies, they were eligible to make a claim for the Protective Award which is worth up to 90 days’ pay.