Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Harry Barnes (Labour), on Thursday, 27 January 1994, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 68 members in total.

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COMPENSATION FOR REDUNDANT ASTRA EMPLOYEES

That this House notes the contradictions between the Government's claims to high standards of decency in the public services and how those employed by the privatised Astra Training Network were treated when Astra went into receivership in 1993; believes that the Government has demonstrated double standards and double dealing in claiming, on the one hand, that the clean break nature of Astra's privatisation in 1990 absolved them of liability for the employees and, on the other hand, making a decision, just prior to the 1992 general election, to make a payment of ??1.2 million to keep Astra afloat; is appalled at the admission in a letter of 8th January from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Employment to the honourable Member for North East Derbyshire that while 'the purchasers of skillcentres were bound by the terms of the sale to make pension provision' (including redundancy payments) 'broadly comparable to that applicable to the civil servants transferred to them, 'there is, however, no legal barrier to an employer seeking to make changes to staff's terms and conditions at any time'; recognises that Astra's closure involved considerable suffering for employees who were transferred, often without effective choice, from the Civil Service and whose previous terms of employment had been seriously undermined; believes that redundancy payments were substantially inferior to those available if Astra employees had still been entitled to Civil Service conditions; and urges the Government to urgently examine the question of ex-gratia compensation to redundant Astra employees.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

478 

Session

1993-94

Subjects

Compensation Company liquidations Redundancy Skillcentres Astra Training Services

Link

View this Early day motion on www.parliament.uk