Lewis: PM appears to have failed in legal duty to consult
A law firm that has previously acted for employees of Axiom Ince and Metamorph Group after both collapsed is now advising more than 50 former PM Law staff members.
PM Law closed suddenly at the start of this month and last week the Solicitors Regulation Authority said client money was missing in what was a “potential fraud”.
Lancashire firm Pearson Solicitors & Financial Advisers said it has been contacted by more than 50 staff about potential protective award claims, having previously obtained employment tribunal judgments for hundreds of employees at Axiom Ince and Metamorph.
“Reading the stories shared by PM Law’s staff on LinkedIn is genuinely upsetting,” said partner and head of employment Alan Lewis.
“No one expects to be dismissed with no notice, no consultation, and no answers.”
He said PM Law appeared to have failed in its legal duty to consult employee representatives before making large-scale redundancies.
“If employers do not consult appropriately when 20 or more employees are made redundant from the same establishment, staff will be entitled to claim a protective award, and any additional income can ease the pressure,” he explained.
Protective award claims are separate from redundancy pay, notice pay or arrears of wages; they are compensation of between 45 and 90 days’ pay.
If an employer is unable to pay a protective award, the government’s Redundancy Payments Service will guarantee up to eight weeks’ pay, capped at £719 per week, minus any arrears already received. This means an employee could receive up to £5,752 through the government scheme.
Claims must be made within three months minus one day from the date of redundancies.
Meanwhile, HM Land Registry said today that it was in the process of identifying all applications lodged by PM Law group and will then review their current status and progress.
“We will then write directly to the customer/client of the intervened firm, if we have been informed of their contact details, to advise them of any outstanding queries. For those applications which do not have outstanding queries, we will aim to progress and complete them where possible.”
If it does not have their contact details, the queries will be sent to Yorkshire law firm Gordons, the intervention agent, to forward on.
The registry “strongly” recommended that affected clients appoint new legal representation “as soon as possible to progress their applications”.
