Axed workers stage payout protest

Angry workers gathered outside the textile factory

Axed workers from a textile plant near Carlisle are mounting a 24-hour protest to press for enhanced redundancy terms.

Stead McAlpin in Cummersdale called in administrators earlier this month and said 62 of its 124 posts would be lost.

The company was sold by John Lewis in September 2007, with the promise any workers made redundant within two years would get an enhanced settlement.

But it has emerged that because the company is in administration axed staff will only get statutory redundancy pay.

Vigil organiser Chris Oates, of Carlisle, who has worked at the company for 31 years, urged John Lewis to step in.

He said he is to receive about £7,000 in a statutory redundancy settlement, but claimed he would have got about £50,000 in an enhanced pay-off deal backed by John Lewis.

Going Concern

He said: "We want to try and get John Lewis to realise that it is them we need help from.

"We believe they are responsible for this mess and they should clean it up.

"Some people here are going to lose their homes. It's not right."

A spokeswoman for John Lewis said: "We sold the businesses to Apex in September 2007 as a going concern and since then John Lewis has continued to be a major customer and buyer of textiles for its furnishing business.

"As part of the sale agreement, we provided employees with an ex-gratia payment of £1,600 each, nine months of pension contributions and a bonus of 15% of annual pay for each of the last two financial years."

A spokeswoman for administrators Begbies Traynor added: "The payout from the government will be limited by the Department of Employment, anything beyond that will be a claim against the company in administration."