Two companies from one of Jersey’s oldest construction groups have been ordered to pay more than £100,000 in compensation to two long-serving employees who lost their jobs when the business collapsed this summer.
The Style Group – including Style Windows, Style Homes, Style Interiors and long-standing construction firm AC Mauger – confirmed that it had ceased trading and intended to enter winding-up procedures on 14 August.
In a letter sent to staff and seen by Express, the company said “the challenges facing the business have made it impossible to continue”.
It continued: “In order to protect all parties’ interests we have needed to place all payments on hold, and that unfortunately includes salaries and wages.”
Staff were asked to return all company property “with immediate effect”.
Among those to lose her job when the group abruptly ceased trading that day was Judith Renouf, who had worked for Style Windows Limited as an Accounts Administrator for more than 25 years.
She submitted a claim against her former employer for unfair dismissal, lack of notice pay, holiday and bank holiday pay and unpaid wages the following month.
The case was heard by the Jersey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal, which ordered on Monday that Style Windows pay Ms Renouf £23,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal and damages totalling more than £12,000 for her other claims.
On Wednesday, the tribunal then handed down judgment in the case of Rosemary Hull, who had worked for AC Mauger & Son as an Accounts Administrator for more than 40 years and made the same set of claims against her former employer as Ms Renouf.
The tribunal concluded that she was entitled to £45,648 in compensation for unfair dismissal, damages of £20,288.00 for the lack of notice pay, and just under £6,000 for holiday pay and unpaid wages.
Both claims were undefended by a Style Group representative, so tribunal chair Dr Elena Moran handed down each judgment in default.
Those owed money by Style Group were last month invited to attend a creditors’ meeting, which set out the failed group’s financial position and asked creditors present to choose liquidators to wind it up.
Aidan Tucker and Louis Gerber of Leonard Curtis Jersey Limited were nominated by the Style Group.
The Viscount’s Department issued a “notice of distraint” on “all moveable assets” of AC Mauger, the construction firm of the Style Group.
It will involve a sale of those assets, although the date of sale is to be confirmed.
A notice of distraint is a formal warning from a creditor to a debtor that their assets will be seized and potentially sold to recover unpaid debts, such as taxes and social security contributions.