More than 20 people working for bars linked to troubled hospitality firm Macmerry are out of work after their bars were closed without notice - despite assurances days before that their jobs would be safe.
Staff at the Abandon Ship Glasgow and London bars were told on Monday they were being made redundant with immediate effect by email. Boss Phil Donaldson said "extremely challenging trading conditions" were to blame.
However, just 12 days earlier, they had been told they would not be affected by major upsets affecting Donaldson's other businesses which saw his major trading company, Macmerry300 Ltd, voluntarily wound up weeks after HMRC sought to shut the company down over what are understood to be six-figure tax debts.
Emails from Donaldson seen by the Record pledge: "I will reassure them all today that nothing is changing for them at all. I will make sure they all understand they will be unaffected by any changes elsewhere." Trade union Unite has accused the company boss of "running roughshod over workers rights."
The union's hospitality organiser Bryan Simpson said: “Despite reassurances verbally and in writing that 'nothing is changing' for staff at Abandon Ship bars only 12 days ago, Phil Donaldson has just issued redundancy notices to all staff at both sites confirming to me that he has no intention of carrying out a genuine or meaningful consultation with those workers in accordance with well established employment law. This is a new low for a company and a former director who continues to run roughshod over the most basic of workers rights.”
The management of Macmerry - which now trades as Belford across Glasgow and Dundee - was implicated in a mass misconduct scandal earlier this year after workers lodged a collective grievance through trade union Unite. They claimed management circumvented health and safety and Covid rules, swept aside reports of sexual assault and deducted tax and pension payments from workers and failed to pass them onto HMRC and pension provider Nest.
Donaldson hired HR firm Dorothy McKinney to carry out an independent investigation into the working culture at Macmerry. He told the Record that the investigation had concluded and declared that claims about the company's toxicity were "not upheld". However, he has refused to release the report, or any excerpts, as proof.
And despite dozens of staff signing the grievance alleging company-wide misconduct, Donaldson has blamed ongoing press examination of his company's treatment of workers for the closures.
He said on Monday: "It’s a very sad day for myself and the team as we have put many years into building and creating this bar brand and those two sites. I am devastated for everyone who has been involved along the way and now for the staff that will be made redundant.
"Due to extremely challenging trading conditions we are no longer in a position to carry on trading at these two venues. Coming out of Covid, the rise in commercial bills and product prices mixed with the constant barrage of negative press from the newspapers it has become impossible to carry on trading at these two sites.
"All the staff being made redundant have worked for Belford throughout their employment at the two sites. The sites will remain closed until a new tenant can be found."
When asked why staff had been told their jobs were safe only to be sacked less than two weeks later, he added: "In business, when the outgoings outweigh the incomings for too long something has to give. Sadly that has been the case at these two particular sites."
HMRC lodged a petition at Dundee Sheriff Court on May 27 to wind up Macmerry300 Ltd, Donaldson's original trading company. He voluntarily wound the company up weeks later and transferred the business' assets to Belford Ltd, run by business partner AJ McMenemy.
However Belford, along with the companies operating the Abandon Ship bars in Glasgow and London, are controlled by a parent company run by Donaldson, Bromford & Bolton Ltd. The Abandon Ship venues were launched in collaboration with graphic designer Richard Davies, who has since cut ties with the company and the brand as a whole.
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