MORE than 40 employees of Circularity Scotland are seeking compensation after being made redundant following the postponement of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme.
Almost 60 of the firm’s staff abruptly became unemployed in June when the wheels came off Scottish Government efforts to launch a drinks container recycling scheme that would pre-empt the UK Government’s planned 2025 introduction of a similar – but not identical – scheme.
Circularity Scotland, the company set up to administer the Scottish scheme, had benefitted from ‘pump-priming’ loans, but was intended to then fund itself from the scheme’s turnover. When it became apparent there would be no income stream until at the earliest 2025, if at all, administrators were called in and staff were informed of their redundancy.
Despite the deeply political and still disputed circumstances behind Circularity Scotland’s collapse, employment lawyers have since suggested that the company had the same legal obligations to its employees as any other – and that making them redundant without any consultation was a breach of the law.
Head of employment law at Thompsons, David Martyn, said: “The law obliges employers who are thinking about dismissing staff on a large scale to consult with their employees to seek their views on ways of avoiding redundancies.
“It is extremely disappointing that those in charge of Circularity Scotland made no effort to comply with their legal obligations. In all likelihood, it is the taxpayer who will have to pay for this mistake,” he added.
Solicitors at Thompsons are now lodging a ‘protective award’ claim with the Tribunals Service on behalf of the CSL workers, arguing that the staff were dismissed without proper statutory consultation. If successful, the claimants could each receive several thousands of pounds from the Insolvency Service.
Last month, the chairman of the state-owned Scottish National Investment Bank, Willie Watt, said he expected to lose more than half of the £9million loan given to Circularity Scotland.
Scottish Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater insists that she was forced to delay the planned DRS introduction after being put in an ‘impossible position’ by the conditions demanded by UK government
Ministers at Westminster have rejected this claim, saying that they simply wanted the scheme to be in line with what is planned for elsewhere in the UK.
