Over 150 former staff of Independent Insurance are to allege that liquidators from PricewaterhouseCoopers failed to consult with them properly over their redundancies.
PwC showed the door to 1,000 employees in June, just days after the firm was called in as provisional liquidator.
Now a group of former staff from the collapsed insurer are launching unfair dismissal claims, stating that they are unhappy with the selection process for redundancies. A test case is expected to be heard next year.
PwC said that it had consulted with staff last week over the sackings. “We have no problem with the tribunal,” a spokesperson said, “if they feel that’s the course they want to take. But we are satisfied that we followed the correct procedure.”
Under insolvency rules, the normal 90 day consultation period for redundancies does not apply. And even if the case was successful, staff would join a long list of creditors.
Disgruntled staff from Independent have set up their own website to further their cause – http://www.exindependentstaff.com/. PwC features heavily in the discussion forum.
PwC has expressed its own e-pinion on the Independent Insurance website.
