Protective Award - important information from
The Insolvency Service

Certain former employees of Woolworths have been awarded a Protective Award Payment by an Employment Tribunal.

To find out if you qualify for the award, and how the Redundancy Payments Service (part of the Insolvency Service)
proposes to pay the award, please visit Woolworths Tribunal Award on the
Insolvency Service website ( www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency ).

You will not be eligible for a payment if you worked in a store with less than 20 employees. The list of these
small stores is mirrored here on WoolworthsReunited.com, and will shortly be available via the links above.

Have your details changed?

If you have moved house or changed bank since losing your job at Woolworths, and are eligible for the award, you
need to tell the Redundancy Payments Service. Follow the Woolworths Tribunal Award link to find how to do this.

USDAW wins Protective Award for most ex Woolworths staff

20 January 2012

The last Woolworths store closed just forty-one days after the business went into Administration. At the time USDAW argued that this was wrong, because the Administrator, Deloitte LLP, had failed in their duty to consult before making major redundancies. The Union pursued a Protective Award claim on behalf of their members.

It has taken more than three years for the Employment Tribunal to reach a decision, but today USDAW announced that the case was upheld for most staff working in England, Scotland and Wales, who were awarded the maximum payout of 60 days compensation, capped at a maximum of £300 per week. The same compensation had already been awarded to colleagues from the stores in Northern Ireland. USDAW are disappointed that a loophole in the law means that the judgement does not apply to those colleagues who worked in stores that employed less than twenty people, which seems very unfair, but believe that 24,000 out of 28,000 staff will receive compensation. The Union plans to appeal the judgement on behalf of the small stores.

USDAW has issued a press-release which notes that the Redundancy Payments Service will have to make the payout. This will be the largest claim that they have ever had to process. They will be sending forms to those eligible to claim. Dealing with them will be a mammoth task, and will inevitably take some time to complete.

We would like to say big thank you to USDAW for their tireless work for Woolworths workers. The case certainly shows the value of having a Trade Union!

USDAW's press release        Report from SkyNews.com