City Link employees who worked out of a Belfast depot have won an Employment Tribunal entitling them to 90 days’ pay after the Tribunal found that they were not properly consulted prior to their redundancy.

The amount was capped at 8 weeks pay because the Department of Education and Learning will have to foot the bill. All employees at the depot at the time the business was put into administration are entitled to the same payout, regardless of whether they went to the tribunal or not, and are encouraged to make a claim.

Legal representative of the plaintiffs Carl Moran of JMW Solicitors LLP said after the hearing, “We are delighted to have won the judgement in Northern Ireland for City Link’s failure to consult properly over the redundancy of the employees at the Belfast depot.”

It is likely that other Employment Tribunals will find against City Link in the coming months and that those who lost their jobs will see some remuneration before Christmas. Many of the drivers and depot workers have found new work due ton the boom in the parcel delvery market.

City Link went into administration on Christmas Eve 2014 and over 2500 people lost their jobs at 51 depots across the UK. This showed just how narrow delivery companies’ margins are in the industry and reduced the number of nationwide couriers on the market.

The UK government’s Department for Business, Industry and Skills recently brought a court action against three directors of the company for failing to notify them of the impending closure. As reported by Apex Insight last week, the charges were dropped at Coventry Magistrates Court and the defendants found not guilty.

The three directors told the court that right up to the last minute they were going for a £25 million investment but when this fell through the company was unsustainable.