Laura Ashley

Protective Award cases members of our Employment team have acted on: Laura Ashley

Laura Ashley fell into administration in March 2020. It is believed that financial pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic were the final straw for the struggling company.

Administrators, PWC, were appointed on 23^rd March 2020. The majority of the staff were dismissed as redundant on 31^st March 2020, whilst a small number were retained to assist the administrators or to sell off the remaining stock. A large number of staff members became aware of their redundancies by letter which back-dated their redundancy date to the week before the issue of the letter.

Hannah Durham and Carl Moran were approached by head office staff in March 2020 with a view to bringing a Protective Award claim for the redundant employees.

The group presenting the claim consisted mostly of head office employees based at Bagley’s Lane in Fulham however further groups were added to account for smaller manufacturing and design hubs including offices located in Powys, Wales and Bardon, Leicestershire.

FRP Advisory were joined as a secondary administrator in July 2020 following pressure from the Pension Protection Fund to investigate the collapse.

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 which it is alleged did not occur in any capacity.

The case remains ongoing.