Torbay MP Adrian Sanders has taken up Nortel redundancy concerns

By PRSD, on Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders has been calling on Ministers and regulators to take action after concerns were raised by former employees of alleged illegal practices in the winding up of former Torbay employer Nortel Networks.

Despite executives at the global communications company receiving multi-million pound bonuses, it is alleged that hundreds of UK workers were made redundant in early 2009 without the legally required 90-day consultation period, with auditors Ernst & Young claiming “special circumstances” made consulting the workers impossible.

Business Minister Ian Lucas confirmed to Adrian that he had met with Ernst & Young to highlight these concerns, but only hinted that some changes may occur in the future.

Adrian has now written to Ernst & Young directly, urging them to abandon anti-worker practices and he is also calling on the regulators, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales to take action against Ernst & Young.

The Tribunals Service revealed that while in 2007-08 there were 4,480 complaints about employers failing to consult, this had risen to 11, 371 for 2008-09, a rise of around 250 per cent.

Adrian told the PRSD: “This problem comes against a background of the decreasing observance of employment law when companies go into administration. So far Ministers and the regulator have been letting the industry essentially police itself, which is bad news for workers across the UK.”

• What’s your experience, are employers increasingly fast and loose with employment law? Comments below, please

(from a press release)