News

A driver has paved the way for 20 truckers and 130 other former colleagues to claim compensation totalling nearly £500,000 following the closure of a Walsall firm.

PRG Powerhouse ceased trading as an electrical retailer last year following a downturn in business, a Birmingham Employment Tribunal was told.

John Hughes, who was a truck driver and warehouse operative at the firm, applied to the Tribunal for redundancy pay with his brother Michael and team leader Victor Humphries.

John Hughes said more than 20 LGV drivers were among the 150 workers to lose their jobs. There was no warning of the closure and they did not receive three months' notice pay, as required by Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) regulations.

"The closure was a bolt out of the blue. We had previously been assured that the firm was doing well," he added.

This was the second time the drivers and their colleagues had lost their jobs at this site they had previously been employed by a company called Powerhouse which had gone into liquidation in 2003.

The operation was taken over and PRG Powerhouse was created, retaining most of the former employees. PRG Powerhouse is now in administration.

Tribunal chairman Christopher Nott said the three men were entitled to 90 days' notice pay, known as protective awards. The money will be paid by the Department for Trade and Industry. They expect to receive at least £3,000 apiece (based on the usual DTI payment in such circumstances  of £250 a week covering three months' notice).

John Hughes says the successful applications pave the way for the rest of the former workforce to make similar claims.