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Keith Prowse workers demand pay
20.08.10
by Damian Dowds, Inishowen Independent
KEITH Prowse call centre employees say they feel
abandoned by the company and don’t know whether they
will get their unpaid salary, redundancy pay and
holiday money.
Employees met on Wednesday and released a statement
saying that contrary to media reports, staff have
not be paid all monies owed to them. Seatem Ltd
closed the doors of their Lisfannon facility on
Sunday last, with employees only learning that they
were to lose their jobs last Thursday. Crunch talks
between local public representatives and IDA
officials was scheduled to take place yesterday in a
bid to source an alternative user for the facility.
The Prowse workers said: "Some of us have been paid
but are down money, in some cases wages are in
deficit by more than €200,” the statement said. “We
have also been informed that we will not be paid for
the two weeks we worked at the beginning of August.”
P45s have not yet been issued to staff, meaning that
they cannot lodge a claim for social welfare
payments. Promises by the company to send a letter
to the Department of Social Welfare explaining the
situation have not yet been made good. |
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“We have received
little or no support from either Keith Prowse or any
Government personnel, apart from the social welfare,
who have been very helpful and accommodating,” the
statement said. “We are constantly being told that
we need to speak with our employer in regards to
obtaining our P45 which is |
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Seatem Ltd, the keith Prowse call
centre in Buncrana, Co Donegal |
needed to process claims and redundancies.
“But we no longer have a point of contact within the
company as they have appeared to have abandoned us.
We are expected to be patient and wait for an
administrator to be appointed, but we don’t know
when this is going to happen. It could be this
month, next month, or never.
“This all means that we do not know if we will ever
get our redundancy pay or the remaining weeks
salary, notice period and holidays paid to us.
The employees fear that delays in appointing an
administrator to the parent company will further
delay a resolution of the wages and redundancy
payments. Administrators will not be appointed until
winding up orders against the company have been
cleared, and Seatem’s Belfast and London office face
winding up orders in late August in early September.
The employees statement expressed disquiet that
Seatem (Donegal) Limited was struck off the Irish
Company Register and dissolved on 28 February, but
continued to trade at Lisfannon until last week. |
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