Around 1,500 ex-LDV workers are to receive up to £2,800 each in notice – almost three years after being made redundant.
Solicitors acting for former workers at the Washwood Heath van maker have won protective award payments for eight weeks’ back pay following a year-long legal battle.
Ex shopfloor workers were stunned a year ago to receive letters from the Redundancy Payments Office in Birmingham telling them they were not entitled to the payments despite a victory at a previous tribunal.
Thompsons solicitors in Birmingham subsequently challenged the decision, which threatened to cost workers up to £2,800 each owed after LDV failed to hold a statutory 90-day consultation period with the union.
A fresh tribunal was held in Birmingham in December last year with a ruling finally paving the way for eight weeks’ worth of wages to be paid out.
Solicitor Robert Smith of Thompsons said: “Workers should now get their full eight weeks’ payment back. Around 1,500 people will get up to £2,800 each.
“There was a fresh tribunal hearing – we got a decision in favour of the union to say that there had been a lack of consultation with the union and we went back to the tribunal to get a fresh award.
“We were very pleased with the result. It has been a long-running process but hopefully it is now drawing to an end; we are now in the process of processing these redundancy payments.”
Former workers have received letters from the Redundancy Payments Office and solicitors are now seeking final clarification on details before the cash is distributed.
LDV closed in June 2009 amid debts of £75 million. The remaining 800 workers at the factory were made redundant, along with thousands more in the supply chain. The plant had previously been mothballed for six months with production at a standstill in the face of the economic downturn.
The assets of LDV were bought by Chinese businesswoman Qu Li in October 2009 but anticipated plans to relaunch the firm making eco-friendly vans have so far failed to materialise.
