Aberdeen paper mill workers win redundancy legal action

Five former workers at an Aberdeen paper mill have won their legal action over claims they were made redundant without being properly consulted.

Stoneywood paper mill - which operated for more than 250 years - went into administration last year.

An employment judge has now ruled that the workers were made redundant without a proper 45-day consultation.

It means they are entitled to compensation. The administrators declined to comment.

BBC Scotland News understands that a separate mass legal action on the same consultation period lodged by Unite the union on behalf of about 300 workers is expected to be ruled on shortly.

The five workers, whose job roles included financial control and IT analysis, will now be entitled to compensation, capped at eight weeks of wages.

Lawyer Paul Kissen from Thompsons Solicitors, the firm representing Unite's workers, said the company should have carried out a collective consultation before dismissing staff.

Mr Kissen told BBC Scotland News: "There should have been a period of 45 days in which the union was consulted in order to identify ways to avoid, reduce or mitigate the consequences of the redundancies - for example, looking for other job opportunities for people, and having meetings with people who were able to say what was going on.

"The administrators failed in their statutory duty to carry out a collective consultation process with these employees before they made everyone redundant."

Mr Kissen said he expected the ruling on the Unite action to be issued "imminently".

"It is all too common that workers who have been working at a company, in some cases for decades are all dismissed without any warning," he added.

"In a situation where a company goes out of business, they should still have the consultation, rather than just being dismissed out of the blue as soon as the ship has all but sunk. "

He added that previous cases with similarities included staff at the department stores Debenhams and Watt Brothers, which both entered administration in recent years.

Unite legal officer Mark Lyon said: "Unite are pleased to have taken on the lead on acting for the majority of cases and lodging them for our members at Arjowiggins Scotland Ltd.

"We are pleased the judgements have begun to be handed down, and are very confident of successful outcomes for our members in the coming weeks.

"Any award for Unite members will be without any solicitors' fees, and all the compensation due will go to our members."

Joint administrators from Interpath Advisory said they did not wish to comment.

In 2019, the business was sold to a new parent company, securing the jobs at the mill.

However, administrators were appointed in September last year.

The mill's problems were blamed on the Covid pandemic and the economic challenges facing industrial manufacturing businesses, including rising energy costs.