Caithness Woolies workers lose out in compensation deal
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FORMER Woolworths employees in Caithness have been told they do not qualify for a share of a £67.8 million compensation payout because the branches they worked at were not big enough.
Staff who worked at stores in Market Square, Wick, and High Street, Thurso, some giving decades of service, lost their jobs in January 2009 after the firm went into administration.
An employment tribunal in London last week ruled that compensation only has to be paid to 24,000 former employees who worked at stores with more than 20 staff.
Both stores in the Far North only employed 15 full and part-time staff, meaning the ex-workers are set to receive nothing.
The result has sparked outrage from union officials who have described the move as an injustice.
Thurso Community council chairman Don Smith slammed the ruling.
"The fact that they worked at stores with less than 20 employees is completely arbitrary," he said.
"It is absolutely unfair that employees at smaller stores are set to miss out on any compensation at all.
"It should have been open to all employees, perhaps with a length-of-service term brought into consideration, but the ruling which will result in these employees missing out makes no sense."
Read more in Wednesday’s Caithness Courier.
