The Glasgow Evening Times has reported that workers fear they will lose out on redundancy payments from electrical chain Comet.
The newspaper reports that the firm is refusing to pay up to £1million in extra payments to dozens of drivers and engineers who are about to be sacked.
More than 50 service workers at a depot in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, claim they will lose thousands of pounds when made redundant in three months time. They serve the whole of Scotland but their work is to be farmed out to “third parties” as part of cost cuts by private equity group OpCapita, which is axing another 400 engineers at bases across the UK.
The new management say they need every penny to help save the business which employs 10,000 staff at more than 240 UK stores.
OpCapita bought the Comet chain last year from Kesa Electricals for just £2 but only when Keso executives agreed to pay £50m into the business after running up multi-million pound losses. But it is alleged that the switch in ownership could cost workers dearly.
Previous redundancy terms offered by Kesa chiefs included ex-gratia payments at the discretion of management. Kesa also routinely paid more than the minimum redundancy required by law. However, the new owners won’t stump up any extra money and have also decided not to enhance redundancy terms.
Union official Billy Parker of Unite said: “Workers will lose thousands of pounds at a time when they will have little or no chance of finding another job. “One worker is looking at a redundancy package of just £10,500 but under the old terms could have walked away with £26,500. “That’s scandalous and is out-and-out asset stripping at its worse. “In Scotland, where 54 workers have been issued with 90-day redundancy notices the savings could be up to £1million.”
Mr Parker warned: “If legal action can be taken to try to get a better financial deal for our members then rest assured we will do just that. “In the meantime we would urge the new owners to reconsider and do the decent thing.”
A spokeswoman for Comet said: “We will meet all our statutory obligations but we are not in a position to offer terms in excess of this. “Reducing our staff numbers has been a tough decision to make but significant savings are required to secure the long-term viability of our business. “This decision in no way reflects the commitment and efforts of our employees and we will make every effort to help them find alternative employment.”