Hednesford bakery bosses told to pay out over staff dismissals
A family of three who closed a bakery following a takeover have been ordered to pay former employees more than £40,000.
Tennants Craft Bakery, which has shops across Cannock Chase, stopped trading in April last year after being taken over by Carl Collins, his wife Debbie and their daughter Melissa, a Birmingham Employment Tribunal was told.
Five former employees, some with 20 years service under the previous owner, made legal claims for unfair dismissal. They claimed they were ‘kept in the dark’ over what was happening about their jobs.
The tribunal hearing took place last November, but because of illness Judge Victoria Dean said she had only just been able to announce her decision.
The Collins family of three were named as respondents, trading as Tennants Craft Bakery, but they did not attend the hearing.
She said in a report: “Sadly the respondents, whether Melissa or Debbie Collins or indeed anyone within the family who worked in the business, deliberately appears to have misled the claimants as to their future.”
Miss Dean further accused the respondents of ‘failing to comply with any of the standards of good industrial practice’ and added that although the employment was terminated by reasons of redundancy, the claimants were unfairly dismissed.
The bakery had previously been run by Mr Philip Tennant and his wife Jane with two sections at Market Street and Wood Lane, Hednesford, as well as shops in Chadsmoor and Heath Hayes.
Miss Dean said in her report that the awards against the respondents ranged from £7,000 to more than £10,000 for the five claimants – making a total of more than £40,000.
