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Hunt for more ex-employees to claim lost redundancy pay

Hundreds of “badly treated” ex-staff from a bust North East electronics plant are likely to miss out on thousands of pounds from their redundancy pay, and now up to 20 workers are battling to claim it back.

Out of the 800 staff that lost their jobs when circuit board manufacturer Viasystems went into administration in 2001, most have received only a portion of their redundancy.

Up to twenty former staff contacted the union bosses, who launched a search for the workers who could claim for the loss of their earnings.

Paul Shevlin, who is handling the claims for Thompson’s Solicitors, said: “There are about twenty claims being processed at the moment.

“We’ve actually had more people contact us, but we’ve been unable to help because they are not union members.”

Some members of the union lost up to £60,000 when they only got statutory redundancy payments, and a date to claw back the money in an industrial tribunal has not yet been set.

Mark Wilson, a GMB regional officer, said: “Hundreds of workers at Viasystems were badly treated and lost out on thousands of pounds, but these payments could represent some sort of partial justice for what they went through.

“These workers were simply called into the works’ canteen and told they were dismissed.

“There is a time limit on making claims, and we need to contact former workers as quickly as possible.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .