Lloyd Clarke, our employment law expert, has urged people facing redundancy from Travis Perkins to seek expert legal advice.
The builders’ merchant, which has five branches within a 15-mile radius of Ipswich and 15 branches within a five-mile radius of St John’s Wood, announced it was cutting 600 jobs and closing more than 30 stores as a result of “uncertain” trading in the year ahead.
But Lloyd Clarke reminds that the company had to meet certain obligations to staff in doing so.
Legal Advice Regarding Redundancy
“It is vital that anyone at risk of being affected gets expert legal advice as soon as possible to make sure that the process is fair, legal and appropriately handled by your employer,” he said.
“People facing redundancy are often offered settlement agreements which need to be signed off by a lawyer to make them legally binding”.
“It makes sense for the employee to choose their own lawyer to do this – someone who is looking out for their best interests and making sure they are getting the maximum benefit.”
The job losses for Travis Perkins, which also owns the Wickes brand, come across both its trade brands which include Benchmark, and plumbing and heating businesses BSS and PTS.
Wickes – and its other consumer-facing business Toolstation – are not affected.
Travis Perkins’ chief executive, John Carter, confirmed that the company was making “efficiency-driven changes in the supply chain”. He added: “It is still too early to predict customer demand in 2017 with certainty and we will continue to monitor our lead indicators closely.”
While he did not mention the UK’s vote to leave the EU specifically and the resulting collapse in the value of the pound, the FTSE 100 firm made it clear it was seeking to cut costs to account for any drop-off in business.
Shares in the company are still down 22% since the referendum.
For more information on employment law please call Lloyd Clarke on 01206 239761.
