The previous staff of a Glasgow music venue have received an employment tribunal 9 months after its closure.
The thirteenth Word referred to as in liquidators final July after employees started a sequence of strikes citing points with contracts, well being and security, and rodent infestation.
On the time, the proprietor stated the enterprise had been “pushed to insolvency” by union motion.
However a choose has now dominated that the agency broke commerce union legal guidelines after it proposed dismissing greater than 20 staff with lower than 90 days’ discover.
Javacrest Ltd, run by Jaqueline Fennessy, did not elect and seek the advice of with worker representatives on the redundancy course of, the employment choose discovered.
Javacrest Ltd, which is in liquidation, has now been ordered to pay the ex-employees 90 days’ value of wages.
The employees hope to take over the venue’s lease from Glasgow Metropolis Council and reopen it beneath new possession.
Nick Troy, lead Unite consultant at The thirteenth Word, stated: “We unionised to win a fairer and safer office at The thirteenth Word however our employer did the whole lot it may to cease us, together with closing our office.
“When it got here to sacking us, the corporate did not even have the decency to tell us first – issuing a press launch to the media earlier than telling the employees that they’d misplaced their jobs.
“With justice served, we will now flip our focus to taking the venue again into staff’ palms in order that Glasgow has a unionised bar and music venue that pays and treats its staff with respect.”
Days after the primary 48-hour strike was held over the weekend of 14-16 July 2023, proprietor Ms Fennessy introduced the closure of the enterprise after 21 years.
It was the first bar staff’ strike in Scotland in additional than 20 years and coincided with the busy Glasgow Truthful public vacation.
The commercial motion was set to proceed each weekend till 6 August 2023.
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Ms Fennessy claimed she was compelled to completely shut the venue down attributable to a “drastic discount in income” because of Unite Hospitality’s involvement.
She added that claims of significant well being and issues of safety had been “merely not true”. Nonetheless, the bar was closed for a brief spell by environmental well being attributable to a mouse infestation.
Bryan Simpson, Unite’s lead organiser for the hospitality sector, stated: “Let this function a warning to unscrupulous hospitality employers all over the place; your staff will win justice and Unite could have their again.”
Ms Fennessy has been contacted for remark.
