Legal victory over pit closure

Millions of pounds for Ellington miners in Key Legal victory over pit closure

High Court Judgement To Change Law on Employee Consultations Around Major Closures

Hundreds of miners who lost their jobs when the Ellington Colliery was closed at short notice are set to receive thousands of pounds each from their former employer as the result of an Employment Appeal Tribunal judgment issued today.

Millions of pounds of punitive damages have been awarded against UK Coal Mining Ltd, which will be used to provide the equivalent of three months’ wages, plus interest, for each of the 330 Ellington miners that were made redundant in 2005.

And the case is set to change the way in which consultations with recognised trade unions around large-scale industrial closures are carried out, ensuring that employers have to treat their workforce more fairly throughout such a process.

The judgement, delivered by The Honourable Mr Justice Elias, means that employers who are planning to make significant numbers of people redundant by completely closing a place of work now have to ‘consult meaningfully’ with the relevant recognised trade unions.

As the law stood, consultations have to be carried out over a 90 day period where more than 100 redundancies are planned, but were not required if the place of work in question is to be completely closed.

Employers, supported by the courts, had said for the last 15 years that the closure of an entire plant was a business decision over which they legally didn’t have to consult, but this view has now been proved to no longer be acceptable in law.

UK Coal was proved to have lied about the reasons for the closure of the pit, claiming that it had been shut on safety grounds after what was claimed to be a ‘catastrophic’ flood, when it was subsequently proved that actual reasons behind the closure were economic.

Today’s judgement rejects an appeal made by the company against a judgement made on the case in April last year, which said that the company had purposefully ignored their duty to meaningfully consult with the trade union and had given false reasons to the union, workforce and government about the reasons for the closure, in order to reduce the amount of notice given to miners in terms of both time and pay.

Ian Lavery, president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which brought the case on behalf of its members at Ellington Colliery, says: “It is outrageous that UK Coal has made hundreds of miners wait for money that was always rightfully theirs by bringing an appeal against the original judgement on a flimsy technicality, and shows the contempt that the company felt for its Ellington workforce and their families."

“The closure of Ellington Colliery destroyed both a whole community and hundreds of people’s livelihoods – the money that each mining family will now receive will obviously be very welcome, but it will be hardly repair all the damage that has been done.”

Brian Freeman, partner at major specialist trade union law firm Browell Smith & Co, which led the case on behalf of the NUM, adds: “The judgement sets a new legal precedent, removing an anachronism which meant that no consultation had to be carried out around the complete closure of a site and enforcing the need for meaningful consultation around ways in which plant closures and major numbers of redundancies might be avoided."

“The obligatory three month consultation period with recognised trade unions that this judgement now enforces would have meant that past closures like that of the MG Rover plant at Longbridge in 2005 would have had to be handled very differently."

“Employers looking at carrying out such measures in the future have been sent a clear message about their duties to their workforce to seek to avoid mass redundancies, and the consequences of not acting in the appropriate manner.”