Colchester Garrison Officers’ Club club staff to sue for unfair dismissal

They say they are unhappy at the way the club has treated them and have instructed a solicitor to start legal proceedings.

Former manager Terry Davies, who is a single mother with a teenage daughter, said she and her fellow workers felt “let down and insulted”.

The club, in St John’s Green, Colchester, burned down last month and the staff were initially told they would continue to be employed on “gardening leave”, even thought the building was a charred ruin.

Then last week, the club told the workers they were being laid off after all.

An angry Ms Davies said: “What the club was saying was complete nonsense. The staff are not being taken care of.

“A lot of us have worked there for many years.”

Ms Davies had worked for the club for 14 years and some colleagues had been there as long as 27 years .

Brian Edwards, who is responsible for the club’s staff, has previously said after the fire the club had taken legal advice.

He claimed workers’ contracts were no longer valid, because of the fire, so there was no obligation to make redundancy payments.

However, solicitor Karen Morovic, head of employment at Colchester law firm John Fowlers LLP, who is acting for the sacked staff, argued the contracts were still valid.

She said she would be putting in claims for unfair dismissal and unlawful deduction of wages to an employment tribunal.

She added: “I don’t accept the contracts are no longer valid. It is quite ridiculous to suggest they are.”

She is also seeking compensation on their behalf, including money staff claim is owed in unpaid salaries, payments in lieu of notice, redundancy payments and holiday pay.

The fire, on Sunday July 25, left the 125-year-old club in ruins, less than a fortnight after it was taken over by its membership.

It is thought to have been started accidentally by cigarette butts in a holder bolted on the wall of the mainly-wooden building.

Mr Edwards was unavailable to comment on the legal action