A group of employees are seeking compensation following the abrupt closure on October 6 of Scotland’s Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), the parent charity that runs the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) and the Filmhouse cinemas in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
A total of 102 employees were made redundant with immediate effect yesterday, with five being kept on to assist with the administration process.
Tom MacLennan and Chad Griffin of FRP were brought in as joint administrators by CMI.
Screen understands the employees were asked on October 5 (not September 29 as previously reported) to attend a meeting that took place on October 6.
Manchester-based solicitors Linder Myers said it has been contacted by 21 affected employees seeking compensation, in the form of a protective award - compensation awarded by an employment tribunal because an employer did not provide consultation prior to the redundancy.
Although the firm is not yet formally representing the employees, a statement from Linder Myers said: “From the information we have received, it is likely that all affected employees will be entitled to pursue a claim for significant compensation as the appropriate consultation procedures were not followed prior to them being made redundant by the company’s administrators.
“In particular, the company should have arranged an election for employee representatives and consulted with the elected representatives at least 30 days before making the employees redundant. This did not occur and all employees were dismissed without any form of consultation process taking place.
”The affected employees could be entitled to an award of up to 90 days pay with up to eight weeks pay (capped at £571 per week), less any arrears of wages, being guaranteed by the government if the claims to the Tribunal are successful.”
Unlike a statutory redundancy payment claim, a protective award claim is available to those who have been employed for under two years. A protective claim can only be made if there are 20 or more employees in any one place of work have been made redundant.
Screen contacted the joint administrators working on behalf of the now defunct CMI for comment. The administrators had no further comment beyond their statement released on October 6, which said: “They [the joint administrators] will move promptly to support the staff with any applications to the RPO (Redundancy Payments Office) for outstanding wages and/or holiday pay, and with accessing external employment support and training agencies, such as PACE.”
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