A former employee of an estate agent who left after it cut staff pay by 30% has been awarded almost £30,000 at an employment tribunal.
Mrs Elizabeth Kerr worked for Howard Cundey LLP for almost four years.
When the firm hit financial difficulty, it “began unilaterally reducing the pay of staff by 30%”, says the tribunal report of the case.
It goes on: “The claimant was not prepared to accept this reduction in pay” and at the end of February this year, “treated the employment as at an end”.
She was without work until the end of March, and then took a job at a slightly lower level of pay.
Howard Cundey LLP subsequently went into liquidation.
Regional employment Judge Hildebrand said that Howard Cundey LLP had failed to comply with the ACAS Code of Practice by unilaterally cutting wages.
The Judge awarded Mrs Kerr a total of £28,056, which included a sum of £5,611 for the breach.
According to Companies House, Howard Cundey LLP is in liquidation, with winding up commencing in August.
EYE reported in July that Howard Cundey had made nine staff redundant and was to reinvent itself as Howard Cundey Live, which is now running a fund-raising campaign on Crowdcube.
The pitch is currently hidden from the wider community, to give selected investors an early opportunity to invest.
Its target is £200,000 and the campaign still has seven days to run.
As of yesterday, it had raised 13% of its target – £27,310 from 15 investors.
Howard Cundey Live, which values itself at £1m, says in its pitch that it has a new 24/7 hybrid model, which combines an online service with low-cost regional hubs where customers can be seen by appointment. It charges vendors from £599.
It claims to be market leading in its core areas of Kent, Sussex and the south-east borders of London with a 7% share of sales and 23% of lettings.
It says that the new investment will be spent on advertising and recruiting, saying: “We believe this could unlock strong revenue growth.”
The team behind Howard Cundey Live are named on the pitch as Dan Berrisford, Tim Foulkes – both of whom were directors at Howard Cundey LLP – and Barry Warner.
The pitch also contains a disclosure: “The IP, data, property lettings and management client base has recently been acquired from Howard Cundey LLP; there are ongoing payments for this purchase.”
Foulkes confirmed to EYE yesterday that there are plans for Howard Cundey Live to expand. He did not comment on the employment tribunal case.
https://www.howardcundeylive.com/crowdfunding/
EYE NEWSFLASH! Fifty-year old high street agency with ten branches to be wound up
Newsflash – These Hybrid, call centre “Hub” business dont work. None of them are making any money and most with a much bigger budget that Howard Live! If you couldnt run your business properly the first time round why would this work. Lastly with your employment record who would now work for you anyway.
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Good grief. Our industry is littered with either the truly deluded or out and out charlatans.
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Doesn’t look like they will reach their target, but very close to being able to pay the tribunal award!
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I do wonder at the wisdom/brass neck of asking for investment so very soon after having demonstrated an inability to successfully run a very similar business.
‘I wish you well but I’m afraid I’m out.’
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Anyway back to the point of the story.
Is it better to just make staff redundant then instead of reducing wages?
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What happened to this company?
I know the firm and in the past they have been market leaders and had some of the best staff.
Now they look like they are lurching from one disaster to another. Crowdfunding just means the bank has no confidence in lending you money – Not a good sign.
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