A Nottinghamshire company has denied claims from former employees that they haven't been paid and are having their final wages kept from them. Stray's Coffee is a family business by brother and sister duo Liz Mack and Mat Short that first established itself in Newark in 2003 and his since expanded to stores in Oakham, Market Harborough and Stamford.
More than 20 former members of staff across the various stores have reportedly come forward and say they have not been paid their wages, which has caused them to struggle financially. One former employee, Lauren Hicks, worked at both the Market Harborough and Oakham stores.
She said: "There’s 22 or 23 of us who haven’t been paid, and 95% of us all worked our notice. I am owed roughly £2000. " She explained that she is owed five weeks of pay in addition to holiday pay.
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Since leaving, Lauren added that they had all received emails saying that they are being made redundant due to part of the company liquidating, and have received letters by the company dealing with the liquidation. Many former employees have reportedly also had problems with their pensions.
Lauren said: "I got refused a pension and the other members of staff who had a pension, theirs' hadn’t been paid into since August 2021, but their contributions had been taken out of their payslips. We've now come to terms with the fact that we are not going to be paid.
"I'm not going to just let it go as I don't think its right. Court fees and stuff are just so expensive, I'm owed £2,000 but by the time I go through the court, I would only get £100."
Former employee Kyra Stokes was only employed at Strays for two months, during which she said she had a short hospital stay that meant she couldn't work. However, Kyra says she is still owed over £600 for the shifts she did work before she left.
Kyra said: "ACAS have had no luck as they have reported they no longer trade under the name of 'strays coffee' as they’ve renamed themselves 'visor' or 'langurra'." She said she emailed the owners and the HR team "multiple times" to see when she would be paid.
"I got the constant excuse of 'banks are busy on pay day' or 'it’s my day off'," she added. Another former employee who does not wish to be named, worked at various Strays sites for almost a year before deciding to resume university and finish her degree. She said: "I handed my notice in, not in any sort of bad spirit, I was just going back to uni.
"I didn't see the company progressing, so I'm going back to uni and finish my degree. I worked for a month notice around 200 hours of work, and got my pay slip but didn't receive a penny of pay and still haven't."
However, since leaving, the 21 year old has been told that she is not being paid because she owes them nearly £2,000 in mileage. She said: "They told me that I actually owed them £1,800 in mileage."
The former employee reportedly calculated her mileage the way that she was shown in the spreadsheet they provided, and says she did not overclaim. A spokesperson for the business said: "The business has traded successfully for over 20 years and throughout that time provided jobs and security for its staff, many of whom have been with company for several years.
"The business has multiple revenue streams which are run through separate companies and despite the recent liquidation of one of those companies no jobs have been lost nor wages unpaid as a result of that liquidation. Along with all other businesses in the hospitality sector, trade has been devastated by two years of lockdown and interrupted trading.
"Nonetheless the company has continued to trade despite numerous setbacks including the death of key management staff. It must also be pointed out that no staff were laid off during lockdown and no jobs lost."
They explained that during the coronavirus all staff members were paid, even those who were not eligible for furlough. This voluntary pay from the company cost approximately £42,000, and ensured that staff were not left without wages and had their jobs retained.
They continued: "The owners understand that there has been a campaign of misinformation on social media, which they have not seen, and do not intend to engage with; they believe that their energies are better utilised running the remaining business. They have however been advised of some of the content and observe that the social media campaign is vague and unsubstantiated; allegedly there are ‘19 employees’ who take issue with pay.
"This is neither factual nor correct." The issue of pensions is something the former directors do not have expertise in, and so they retain the services of a pension consultancy firm to set up and maintain pensions, and say if "any queries remained unresolved at the time of the liquidation they will be addressed and resolved by the liquidator."
Issues have reportedly been raised by former employees with the ACAS, but the directors are unaware of this, and say if they are any unresolved issues regarding this, they will also be dealt with by the liquidator. The spokesperson added: "The former directors, in co-operation with the liquidator, have agreed to fund the retention of a specialist employment consultancy firm to specifically contact former employees to ascertain if there are any unresolved issues.
"If that is the case, the mandate for that firm is to assist former employee’s to access the very many government schemes set up to recompense any employee that has suffered loss as a result of Covid related insolvencies. There are hundreds of thousands of hospitality business’s that have failed as a result of Covid lockdowns, hence the government assistance available.
"We are assured by that firm that, if there are any remaining issues, no one will lose out financially as compensation is available to all employees across our nation for events such as this, which are widespread within the industry."
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