Ex-Time employees see hopes dashed

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granville, Time

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A ruling that gave former employees of Granville Technology hope that they might receive some payment from the company's administrators has been overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Granville Technology, which operated the Time Computers, Tiny and the Computer Shop brands, went into administration last month. An application made by the administrators, Grant Thornton, to reverse the judgment in the landmark case Kasner v McMath was successful last week.

This judgement had allowed for so-called "protective awards", such as payments in lieu of notice, to be treated differently from other unsecured money.

If the judgment had stood, the administrators would have been forced to treat some employees as secured creditors. However, Grant Thornton's lawyers, Lovells, successfully argued that this would have made it more difficult for the administrators to save the company. They argued that, faced with having to make payments to a large number of employees, the administrators would be forced to lay-off the remaining 100 people who are still employed at Granville Technology.

According to the Department of Trade, the principles of administration are based on the idea that the company in administration can be saved and that this should be the first priority.

Many customers who had placed orders with Granville Technology Group before its collapse are also worried that they will not receive either their goods or their money back.

Talkback

disgraceful , makes u want to be a criminal , if people can get away with stuff like this , whats the point in living a decent life if u are just going to get screwed over , while the mohsans are off suning it in dubai

via Facebook 15 August, 2005 14:48
Reply

two thirds of the remaining 100 or so are getting the push tomorrow, the rest go at at the end of the month. There was no chance that this judgement would affect the remaining staff - the business is being shut down anyway. The truth is that there is nothing left to sell: GE Finance (the major provider of Finance) have set up their own helpline, having been stung when the "old" Tiny company went bust. The rights to support the systems with direct debit warranties have been sold/transferred back to the Mohsans, who are operating a new business out of their Internexus/Supanet building. They're already offering the techies their old jobs back - at reduced wages (one Software Support adviser today was offered a job at £10500 - he currently only earns £11500). As there is still confusion over who owns the Time and Tiny brand names, there is nothing valuable left to sell: it looks like the stock has gone as a job lot to "Wildfire Developments" - see www.tinyprices.co.uk - these are the goys who got the Carrerra stock for nothing when they went bust. Overall it looks like a stitchup all ways round. Yet again Grant Thornton have got themselves an exit strategy which pays THEIR fees but does nothing to maximise the revenue. Seems to me G-T should be investigated by the DTI along with Time/Tiny/Granville. Giving the "old" Tiny company away without looking for competitive bids can be regarded as an error. Giving the same business away a second time is either stupidity, incompetence or..???

via Facebook 16 August, 2005 20:23
Reply

What chance have you got !!!!!!!!!!!
If the bloody courts won't help you who the hell can - so thanks for nothing! What the hell do we all pay taxes for !!!!!!
I worked & dedicated years to this company for bugger all !
All we want is our money that we are owed - that is all! We all worked hard & fair is fair give us our money.
I am also sick of people going on about the poor customers! WHAT ABOUT THE 1500 EMPLOYEES who have no money to feed there family's??????

via Facebook 19 August, 2005 22:06
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