Former Fifteen Restaurant employees to receive pay out following employment tribunal
Jamie Oliver's restaurant and Cornwall Food Foundation dismissed staff with immediate effect after going into liquidation last Christmas.
Former employees at Cornwall Food Foundation and its associated Fifteen Restaurant will receive a more than £200,000 following a failure in the redundancy process.
The restaurant at Watergate Bay, founded by Jamie Oliver, made the announcement it was going into liquidation in emails and via social media in December 2019 and ceased trading with immediate effect after almost 14 years.
The foundation was a charitable venture running healthy eating programmes for the community and training young chefs and restaurant staff through the Fifteen Restaurant.
Both businesses closed just days before Christmas last year without any prior warning causing the loss of 78 jobs.
A Crowdfunder was later launched to help the staff losing their jobs with the hopes of raising £10,000.
However after making contact, Citizens Advice Cornwall stepped-in to make sure the former employees knew about their rights and helped them make applications to the Employment Tribunal for the Protective Award, which will be paid by the Government’s Redundancy Payments Scheme as the businesses are insolvent.
The law requires employers to consult with staff for at least 30 days whenever 20 or more employees are likely to be made redundant. Employees are entitled to compensation, called a Protective Award where that does not happen.
“This is a great result for the former employees. The extra money will help tide them over Christmas.
"Many have suffered a double whammy from being made redundant with no notice last winter and since then have been unable to find stable jobs in hospitality and catering due to lockdown.”
Martin Jackson, Citizens Advice Adviser
“As soon as the job losses were announced, solicitors’ firms were lobbying the ex-employees for business with “no win, no fee” schemes that would have led to them charging over £50,000 for making the applications, which Citizens Advice has done for free.
“Anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation can come to Citizens Advice, where we can look into their case and, if necessary, help with any claim.”
Citizens Advice Cornwall Chief Executive, Gill Pipkin
The payments are equivalent to eight weeks’ pay for the former Fifteen staff.
"It's been a really challenging year for everybody but everybody's kept in touch and really coordinated well to get the where we are today.
"I would like to say a massive thank you to Martin Jackson in particular from Citizens Advice and them as an organisation for taking this on and helping us all. We couldn't have done it without them
Helen Wilson-Prowis, Former Operations Manager, Cornwall Food Foundation