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29 January 2009 / Jeremy Nixon
Issue: 7354 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Managing the credit crunch

Part 3: Jeremy Nixon looks at employee protection when employers go bust

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Hopes that the credit crunch would remain confined to Wall Street have been dashed with the effects now clearly being felt on Main Street. In addition, some of the world's best known names such as Lehman Brothers and Woolworths have been swept away by what has been described as a financial tsunami. As the economic slowdown continues, it is inevitable that many other firms, both large and small, will go to the wall and employees will suffer despite the protections available.

In circumstances where a company goes into administration and employees are dismissed as a result, or where the company's assets are liquidated, staff are able to claim certain sums from the National Insurance Fund (NIF). The payments available are as follows:

      
      ●     arrears of up to eight weeks' wages, meaning unpaid wages or salary, overtime, bonuses and commission, provided that these were contractually payable and that they relate to a specific period

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
The winners of the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2026 have now been announced, marking another outstanding celebration of excellence, innovation, and impact across the legal profession
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
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