Outsourced workers win

Construction workers’ union UCATT marked the start of 2015 with a victory for 200 outsourced workers, dismissed without warning in September 2010 when their employer, Connaught, collapsed and went into administration.

The win brings to an end four-and-a half-years of litigation.

The sacked staff had worked on Norwich City Council’s outsourced housing maintenance contract. The employment tribunal made a protective award due to Connaught’s failure to consult workers before making them redundant. The award is for the maximum 12 weeks’ pay.

However, since Connaught no longer exists, the payment will be made by the Redundancy Payments Office and will be capped at £350 per week (the weekly rate that was in force in 2010 when the workers were dismissed) for eight weeks.

Commenting on the victory, Brian Rye, UCATT’s regional secretary for the union’s Eastern region, described the union’s “very long and protracted fight for justice,” adding that “UCATT has always promised that it would win justice for the former Connaught workforce and we have delivered on that promise”.

www.ucatt.org.uk/former-norwich-based-connaught-workers-win-justice