Enforcement of Tribunal Award in Scotland

Psychofly

I'm in the middle of a bit of a complex dispute with my previous employer. Please note that this is under Scottish law and as such I think falls under different rules and procedures than it would in English and Wales though if I'm wrong in that respect please correct me. Anyway here goes:

I handed in my months notice near the end of August while working for a small family owned IT business. My months notice took me up to a final working day of 23rd September. I worked 3 weeks of the notice period then was told to take my outstanding annual leave to cover the remainder of it meaning the last day I was at work was the 16th September. I started my new job the following week on 23rd September. The 30th September was due to be pay day for the previous company but no money appeared. I phoned the owner that afternoon and was told the company had gone into sequestration and they couldn't pay but I'd get money after contact from an insolvency practitioner. I wasn't entirely convinced this was true so I wrote a letter of grievance regarding the failure of salary payment giving them time to respond. Following this I raised a case with the employment tribunal service and was given a hearing date of 2nd December. In the time up to the hearing the 2 owners of the company were declared personally bankrupt and I discovered that the company was being listed at Companies House as having a proposal to strike off (be disolved) although I only found this out by accident and was not informed as an interested party which I believe they had a legal obligation to do.
At the hearing, which they didn't attend, the tribunal judge ruled in my favour ordering them to pay the money I was due, needless to say this hasn't happened and to be honest I wasn't really expecting it to and I know they still have time to appeal. The tribunal judge said she was writing to companies house to ask them NOT to strike off the company until I had time to recover the money due to me, which I believe was done as an objection to the proposal to strike off. She also recommended I talk to Citizens Advice for advice on how to take action on the judgement and get them to pay up. Citizens Advice were less than useless and the guy tried to Google an answer ! His advice was to wait the 42 days appeal time then to claim the money through the National Insurance Fund which I'm NOT eligible to do in this case since the company is not insolvent. The only other way I could do this would be if I was claiming for redundancy payment which the company doesn't pay, however since this is for unpaid wages this isn't covered unless the company is made insolvent. Given that Citizens Advice obviously weren't even sure of what to do I'm looking for any advice or guidance anyone here may be able to give. How can I try and enforce this tribunal award ? My feeling is I've got precious little chance of getting anything and that my only hope is to contact a sheriff officer and try and get them to enforce the award. I believe that in Scotland a sheriff officer can action a tribunal award without going through the court process required in England and Wales which I believe involves taking it initially through the county court, again I'd welcome any correction on this if I'm wrong.
I'm really not holding out much hope on this and I've pretty much resigned myself to losing all the money I'm due but I don't want to give up without being sure what my options are. Any help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated and thanks for taking the time to read all this.

Uncertain

Psychofly wrote: »

I believe that in Scotland a sheriff officer can action a tribunal award without going through the court process required in England and Wales which I believe involves taking it initially through the county court, again I'd welcome any correction on this if I'm wrong.

In England and Wales you can now cheaply use the High Court enforcement procedures and don't have to go to the Count Court. This is a fairly recent change.

I assume there will be an equivalent in Scotland but I don't know the details. The ET staff should be able to tell you what procedures are available to you as this does not amount to legal advice.

Psychofly

Unfortunately it was the ET staff who told us to contact Citizens Advice ! I get the feeling the reason it's so difficult to find advice for these circumstances is because there's some loophole in the law that means under these circumstances the claimant can't do anything to enforce it. All advice I can find takes me as far as going to National Insurance fund to get the money but then specifically tells me my circumstances don't qualify but offer no alternative in my case !

creditcardhelp11

Sorry it is Scottish civil law so would not like to comment. However, if you have home insurance with legal protection give them a call, some policies offer free legal advice for employment law issues, they may be able to help?

Psychofly

That's a good idea, I never considered that. Thanks for that.

dacouch

creditcardhelp11 wrote: »

Sorry it is Scottish civil law so would not like to comment. However, if you have home insurance with legal protection give them a call, some policies offer free legal advice for employment law issues, they may be able to help?

Some contents policies will even pay you out under unrecovered court awards cover

Psychofly

That would be beyond the realm of my luck ! I'll have a look though, again thanks for the advice so far.

bris

You need to contact who ever it is that is dealing with the ltd companies affairs, they will be able to tell you if there is anything left to pay you or not. You can't get it from the directors so you go on the list of creditors. There will be an administrator you can contact, the chances of recovery are slim, don't spend any money on the Sheriffs officers until you are sure there is something to get back.

Psychofly

There are no administrators because the company hasn't actually gone bankrupt or gone into administration. The 2 owners have both been made personally bankrupt but the company has simply stopped trading. There is a proposal to strike off lodged with companies house but the employment tribunal judge has written to companies house to request this is not carried out until we have time to recover what we've been awarded. I think the proposal to strike off was lodged by HMRC since the 2 owners/directors have been made bankrupt and as such can no longer hold directorships. The company itself ceased trading on the day our salaries were due and I know it was planned for a couple of weeks before this as I've been told be previous customers that they had been informed the company would cease trading on this day. Unfortunately I only found this out after the event. Because there's no insolvency practitioner and the company isn't actually insolvent it appears to be leaving me in limbo with very little, if any, chance of recovering the money.
I've contacted my contents insurance provider who are looking at my claim and apparently will come back to me within 5 working days to tell me if they can take the case on. Unfortunately they don't pay out based on the judgement but may provide a solicitor to assist in attempting recovery.
I'm probably just missing important websites here but nothing I look at on the web to try and get information seems to cover these circumstances where the directors are made personally bankrupt and the company simply ceases trading. As far as I can make out the only hope I'd have is to pursue the previous owners for the money but since they've been made bankrupt there's nothing I can do. They've been listed on the Register of Insolvency on the Accountants in Bankruptcy website for about 6 weeks now with their joint assets showing about £3 with debts of around £200k. We've been told by the person dealing with their personal bankruptcy that we may be able to get some money following the valuation and sale of their house but since their assets haven't changed it looks like the valuation still hasn't happened. If I have to wait for the house sale then given the housing market just now I'm concerned that it won't sell and I don't know if once the bankruptcy time runs out what I can do next. I'm guessing that after that I have even less chance since surely they'll then no longer be legally liable for the debts ?