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Seventeen workers employed by Paragon Automotive Limited at their Immingham premises have won claims of unfair dismissal at a hearing at the Hull Employment Tribunal.

In December 2008 Paragon Automotive began consulting with their Immingham based workforce with the intention of changing their working hours to ‘zero hours’.  In practice, the hours of work were to be “Any such days and hours as required by Paragon Automotive.”  Zero hours contracts of employment have been largely condemned by Trade Unions because they provide no certainty for the workers and can provide absolute power to the employer. 

63 out of 80 total workers at the Immingham premises accepted the new zero hours contracts of employment but 17 workers, with assistance from Unite the union, objected.  In January 2009, Paragon gave the 17 workers notice of termination of employment with the option to either accept the zero hours contracts or be dismissed.  The 17 were concerned about losing their income and so they signed the zero hours contracts on expiry of notice on the proviso that they would challenge the imposition to an Employment tribunal. 

The 17 workers made claims of unfair dismissal to the Employment tribunal with the assistance of Bridge McFarland Solicitors.  A test case was heard by the Hull Employment Tribunal in October 2009.

The employment tribunal commented on the pressures which the zero hours option would place on employees stating, “The prospect of having no income is a frightening one at the best of times.  It is made worse if during a prolonged period of uncertain duration they are forbidden to seek alternative employment… and moreover are not able to claim benefit.”  The Tribunal concluded that the employee had been unfairly dismissed.

By an out of court settlement of January 2010, 15 of the claimants successfully secured reinstatement to their original contracts of employment.  Two of the claimants did not wish to return to employment with Paragon and were awarded monetary compensation by the Leeds Employment Tribunal on 19 January 2010. 

Chris Randall, Solicitor of Bridge McFarland representing the Claimants commented: “This case sends a warning to employers that despite difficult times, the state of the economy cannot be used as an excuse to implement measures at will.”

Malcolm Hancock of Unite the Union commented: "These were extremely draconian actions that were proposed by Paragon Automotive.  However with the support of Unite the Union, our members demonstrated that by standing together they could protect their terms and conditions of employment".