RE: The truth behind the RNS01 Nov 2019 16:28
Whether in administration or not – an employee’s standard rights remain the same. This includes having a contract of employment, the right to rest breaks in line with the working time directive, working hours in line with the working time directive, statutory holiday entitlement and sick pay, not being paid less than the minimum or living wages, parental rights and the right to request flexible working.
During administration, these rights are extended to include the right to be paid monies owed, such as outstanding wages and commission up to a maximum of £800, redundancy pay, up to six weeks’ accrued holiday pay and any pension contributions; the above rights to remain in place during administration and, if the business is taken over by someone else, these rights are protected.
The first 14 days are pivotal. If an employee is made redundant during this period, they become an ‘ordinary creditor’.
This means they will be in the last category to receive monies owed. However, their entitlement to outstanding wages and redundancy payments will remain.If retained beyond this, the employee becomes a ‘preferential creditor’. As the name suggests, this decision is preferential to being made redundant during the period as it puts the employee in a better position should they face redundancy later on.
It gives them priority over ‘ordinary creditors’ and they therefore stand a better chance of recouping monies owed to them.
Once the initial 14 day period is over, the employment rights of staff are then EFFECTIVELY ADOPTED BY THE ADMINISTRATOR until a buyer can be found. The Administrator pays the wages upto a statutory amount until a buyer i.e. INFA complete the purchase and take on the employee rights.
As part of the FID at the end of the year, all costs that INFA have incurred on the project so far will be returned, I believe 15 million in total. I guess this will be used to fund in part current and future projects including H&W. The EU funding of 1.6 million, if granted, will and can only be used on the gas storage project imo. Also, there will be other Northern Ireland investment grants available to fund the H&W project as stated in the rns of early October. So taking all this into consideration, I'm hoping dilution of current shareholders is kept to a minimum. But if we a continuous pipeline of new projects coming online, with the promise of early revenues from JW, we could have a great future. GLA