The £47m turnover contractor – a construction delivery partner of Fortis Developments – collapsed three weeks ago blaming the pandemic and the inflationary cost pressures.  

Manchester law firm Simpson Millar has been contacted by several former workers who claim they were not consulted over the job losses.

Its specialist employment team has now begun investigations into whether a protective award can be secured for those affected.

News of a potential claim comes as around 60 staff made redundant following the collapse of another builder, Midas Group, also look to pursue legal action against their former employer. 

Where an employment tribunal finds in the favour of the employees, they will be able to access the funds of up to £4,352 through the Government Insolvency Service.  

The firm has also urged those affected to take action if they too would like to be involved in the legal action, as ex-employees have just three months less one day from when they were made redundant to make a claim.  

Anita North, an employment law expert at Simpson Millar, said: “Over the past few days we have spoken to a growing number of people who have been directly affected as a result of job losses, and are in the early stages of investigating whether more should have done to consult with staff. “

She said: “Regardless of whether a company is struggling financially, it does have a duty under current employment law legislation to carry out a proper consultation with staff at risk of redundancies. Where that does not happen, employees can bring a claim for a protective award.”    

A Protective Award is a payment awarded by an employment tribunal in cases where an employer fails to follow the correct procedure when making 20 or more redundancies and, where an employment tribunal finds in the favour of the employees, they will be able to access the funds via the Government Insolvency Service.