Monarch Aircraft Engineering

Protective Award cases members of our Employment team have acted on: Monarch Aircraft Engineering

Our Employment Solicitors, Carl Moran and Hannah Durham, were instructed to lodge a group Protective Award claim on behalf of circa 140 former employees of Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited ‘MAEL’.

MAEL was the engineering arm of collapsed airline giant, Monarch Airlines. Monarch Airlines fell into administration in October 2017. Click here to read about how our solicitors helped the Monarch Airlines employees. Following the collapse of the parent company, the engineering arm sought to continue to trade on its own but inherited significant debts. The company even went as far as to launch a Creditors Voluntary Arrangement in order to stay afloat however the company eventually fell into administration itself in January 2019 with a loss of circa 500 jobs.

Various divisions and operations were transferred to other operating airlines/engineering companies which safeguarded circa 200 jobs. The Company’s Line maintenance divisions at Gatwick, Birmingham, East Midlands, Newcastle and Glasgow were largely transferred to the Morson Group. The London based operations were transferred largely to Storm Aviation and further operations at Manchester and Birmingham were transferred to Flybe, safeguarding various roles.

For those employees not transferred across to solvent businesses, they were made redundant on various dates starting on 4^th January 2019.

Under s.188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consultation) Act 1992 (TULRCA), an employer is obligated to collectively consult with its employees when proposing to make redundancies. Where an employer proposes to make redundant between 20-99 employees, they must consult with those employees over a period of 30 days. Where an employer proposes to make 100 or more employees redundant, the consultation period is 45 days. Failure to consult entitles the employees to a Protective Award- punitive damages of up to 90 days’ pay.

The claim successfully concluded in February 2020 with each claimant awarded the maximum Protective Award