‘We deserve better,’ say former Woolies staff
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FORMER Woolworths staff in Caithness have hit out after learning that they will not receive a share of a multi-million pound compensation deal.
Workers at the company’s former branches in Wick and Thurso have been told, along with 3000 other employees from 180 branches across the UK, that they do not qualify for the £67.8 million compensation payout which was agreed last week.
And the move to only pay compensation to 24,000 members who worked at stores of more than 20 employees has been branded by union officials as an “injustice”.
After 32 years’ service at Woolworths branch in Wick, the decision to offer no compensation to her or any of her hard-working colleagues feels like a slap in the face for Rhona Macleod.
The 58-year old from Wick, who spent most of her working life at the Market ?Square branch, said that she felt she had ?been completely devalued by the company.
For over three decades Mrs Macleod worked her way up through the ranks to become a team leader with the company.
But after the announcement of the employment tribunal that stores with fewer than 20 employees would receive no compensation, she feels that she and her ex-colleagues have been treated unfairly.
“Someone who has been working at a bigger branch for only five years will be entitled to compensation, but because there were only 15 members of staff at Wick I don’t qualify, despite working there since the 1970s,” she said.
“We weren’t like other companies which close down, as we did get paid for the hours that we worked, but most of my colleagues also worked there for around 30 years and it is unfair to be told we aren’t getting anything out of it.
“Why we should be segregated from the rest of Woolworths employees? Like everybody else, we lost our jobs.”
She added: “A total of 24,000 employees are set to get 60 days’ compensation, but if it was a question of money why couldn’t they reduce the amount everyone got so all employees could get some form of compensation?”
Maureen Johnson (62), from Papigoe, was the last manager of the Market Square branch before it shut its doors in 2009. She had worked at the branch since 1975.
She said that it beggared belief how colleagues who had worked at the branch for so long were not entitled to part of the compensation.
“It can only be considered as discrimination towards smaller branches in favour of staff at bigger stores,” she said.
“We had a small team, but they were very loyal to the company with some working there for over two decades.
“It is unfair that stores which had under 20 members of staff have been treated this way; we deserve better.
“I can’t understand how they can get off with it because, at the end of the day, it’s wrong.”
Her views were echoed by Vanda Gunn (54), from Thurso. She worked in her home town’s branch for 12 years and was a team leader before being made unemployed when the company went into administration. That store, too, had under 20 members of staff.
She is struggling to understand the reasoning behind the decision to only offer compensation to employees who worked in big stores.
“To have received some compensation would have been at least some sort of recognition of all the effort and hard work we had put in,” she told the Caithness Courier.
“But it does make you feel that your efforts were less important than others in bigger branches when you are told they are getting compensation and you are not.
“When I heard that they were paying out £67 million, I thought that I would have received something.
“Every employee lost their job at the same time when Woolworths closed down in January 2009, so I don’t know why all of us are not entitled to something.”
In a judgement last Friday, an employment tribunal in London found that the Woolworths administrators had failed in their legal obligations to consult with Usdaw.
Usdaw members were awarded compensation of 60 days’ pay, capped at £330 a week, the maximum payable in these circumstances.
Ruling ‘makes ?no sense’
THE decision that will result in former Woolworths employees in Caithness missing out on compensation has been slammed as “intolerable”.
Branding the move as unfair, Caithness, Sutherland and Ross MSP Rob Gibson said the legislation that has resulted in Caithness workers losing out needs to be amended.
“Whoever made the rule needs to get it changed so that people who spent many loyal years working for the company get their due recompense,” he said.
“We need to find some way to get legislation altered and I plan to speak to my colleagues in Edinburgh to see if there is anything we can lobby to address the issue.
“A rule which discriminates against smaller enterprise is intolerable, especially in a small country like Scotland and in communities such as Caithness, where the closure of Woolworths had a big effect on the retail industry in the region.”
Thurso Community Council chairman Don Smith said that many employees who worked at branches in Caithness were there for a number of years and the fact that they were set to receive nothing is wrong.
“The fact that they worked at stores with fewer 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.”
An icon of the British High Street, Woolworths went into administration on November 2008 and closed all of its 814 stores, offices and distribution centres in January 2009 making 30,000 people redundant.
