back to article Ex-2e2 staffers STILL waiting for wages owed

The frustration for hundreds of 2e2 staffers waiting to discover if they are to be paid wages owed to them continues nearly a year after the Berkshire-based integrator went under in dramatic circumstances. Some 356 claimants of 2e2 UK Ltd, Oakley Capital Ltd, Daisy Data Centre and Telefonica are holding out for the funds, and …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Strip the place bare

    If you aren't walking out with your monthly wage in desktops, printers, laptops, monitors and other bits then don't expect to receive remuneration for your hard work.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Strip the place bare

      most directors didnt suffer weeks of not having money to pay for nursery fees and food i bet

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Strip the place bare

      Strip the place bare you say... and then get sued by the administrators to get the stuff they legally own back. *slow clap*

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Give it up as a lost cause

    if my experience of working for a company that went Belly/tits up.

    Then get your claims into the Redundancy Service for lost pay/redundancy, get the Inland Revenue to check your tax code for that year and move on to bigger and better things.

    1. ChrisC Silver badge

      Re: Give it up as a lost cause

      Quite. My previous employer went belly-up in January 2010, and the administration process only started to wind up last summer. Whilst there was a reasonable amount of cash remaining in the business at the time it entered administration (enough to give every creditor more than just a token gesture repayment), after 3 and a half years of the administrators sucking the coffers dry to pay their own fees (because, of course, THEY can't be expected to lose out financially, can they...) the last report they sent out indicated that they were not expecting to make any payments to any creditors.

      So as the AC says, whack in your claim to the government as soon as you can, and forget about receiving anything from your former employer. If, by some miracle of miracles, cash remains in the coffers and you do eventually receive some return on what you're still owed, then treat it as you would a large lottery win - bloody nice if it happens, but not something you should be relying on.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Give it up as a lost cause

        "because, of course, THEY [the administrators] can't be expected to lose out financially, can they..."

        Playing Devil's Advocate here, but why should they? Administrators are brought in to sort out the mess cause by a company that's *already* unable to pay its debts, i.e. they're there to do a job on behalf of the government and presumably weren't involved in the circumstances leading up to the company's bankruptcy. It's quite likely that people owed money are going to lose out anyway, and that's not fair on them, but it's not the administrators' own fault, or their moral responsibility to cover the result of that out of their own pockets.

        Well, in theory anyway.

        Of course, if they lose out because of their own incompetence, or if they're excessively milking the company they're meant to be rescuing, that's something different altogether, and the latter case would essentially be criminal. Then again, like much in business, criminality means nothing if it can't be proved, or if it suits those in power *not* to be "able" to prove it, i.e. if it involves or might upset the business interests of their establishment, white-collar chums.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Give it up as a lost cause

          I have to agree here, don't fight through bankruptcy as you're unlikely to see ANYTHING out the other end.

          But is it just me that, the second I don't receive my salary one month, I don't come into work for the next month - no matter the excuse? That's *why* we're paid a month in arrears after all - if I did a month's work for you and haven't been paid, I'm not going to start a second month for you. You can't sack me (legally) for that, I can take you for breach of contract ,etc.

          So those people owed money are largely owed redundancy money, I would imagine, and a month's wages. Anything more than that makes me suspicious of why someone would carry on working for them. And, though it's a horrible situation, if you're *reliant* on redundancy money to live, then it's going to be disappointing for you anyway (there's probably not a strict limit on when they pay that to you, unlike contracted wages).

          So although it's a pain to have to go get a new job, you would have to do that anyway. If you're "out of pocket", then it can't be by that much that you're dependent on it past the possibility of being "sacked", surely?

  3. Roland6 Silver badge

    Many here are missing the point

    The staff lost their jobs over a year ago - hence all the stuff about walking out with kit in-lieu of pay and going into work when you have not been paid are irrelevant.

    The question is just what is owed?

    The areas that need to be covered and the article doesn't provide any information are:

    1. Pay for time worked - typically for the month in which the company folded. Yes it is normal for a company to fold towards the end of a month rather than at the beginning.

    2. Redundancy pay - Suspect none was paid out, additionally it wouldn't surprise me if no one qualified for statutory redundancy pay and benefits (see below).

    3. NI contributions - It is typical for company's to pay these months in arrears. HMRC will honour pay slips which show that PAYE has been deducted and will join the creditor queue for this, but not for NI. So if these haven't been paid then no benefit entitlement (or state pension contribution).

    4. Pension contributions - these like PAYE and NI are also typically paid out months in arrears (yes this also includes any additional FSAVC's made through the payroll) . So likewise an employee is unlikely to see any benefit from these deductions.

    5. Pension fund - If the company ran a final salary pension scheme then the wind-up of the company will have crystallised the funding short fall which in turn will mean the fund will be paying out smaller pensions than people thought they would be getting.

    One would hope by now that it is generally known what has and hasn't been paid and hence the uncertainty is over whether any additional payments to the employees will actually be made.

  4. Minion

    " legal eagle"

    disorganised vulture ......generalization of coarse.

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