Compensation for former Woolworths workers

Woolworths on Yorkshire Street

Hundreds of former Woolworths employees are set to receive compensation after an Employment Tribunal ruled that the firm’s administrators had failed in their legal obligations to consult with unions.

A total of 453 people in Rochdale – who worked at the Yorkshire Street store and the warehouse in Castleton - lost their jobs when the firm went into administration in 2008.

Workers who are members of the shop workers union Usdaw will receive compensation of 60 days pay, capped at £330 a week.

Usdaw won compensation worth up to £67.8 million for over 24,000 former employees of Woolworths.

Because Woolworths was in administration at the time of the redundancies, responsibility for the compensation payments rests with the taxpayer, through the government’s Redundancy Payments Office (RPO).

The RPO will write to all former Woolworths employees entitled to receive compensation, enclosing a form that will need to be completed and returned to the RPO before they can process payment.

As a result, and because this is the largest insolvency the RPO has ever had to deal with, it is likely to be several weeks before members receive their compensation.

John Gorle, Usdaw National Officer, said: “While the award is never going to fully compensate people for losing their jobs, I’m sure our members will welcome the money and appreciate the effort Usdaw has made to secure the compensation for them. Cases like this once again demonstrate the immense value of belonging to a trade union.”