“They should be held accountable in some way,” she said. “He’s got about 10 other companies, yet I can’t receive anything because he’s left [Peckham Levels] and it’s got nothing to do with him any more.”
This week London Centric reported on how a series of companies owned by Benson collapsed with millions of pounds in unpaid debts to HMRC, film distributors, local councils, employees and other small businesses.
Benson told us that the company was unable to pay Nadine’s award because Southwark council pulled out of an agreed acquisition, forcing Peckham Levels to go into administration. He said this was the first time in 20 years that he had been taken to a “full tribunal” and that he had preferred to resolve the matter through a settlement.
Nearly a year after Nadine started legal proceedings, Benson offered a £6,000 settlement, less than tenth of what the tribunal ended up awarding her. Benson had not accepted an earlier settlement offer made by Nadine for £15,000.
“It is deeply regrettable that this case has caused distress to Ms Fallone,” Benson said.
A patchwork of enforcement
The UK has several government bodies that enforce employment law, but when it comes to most rights, it is left to workers themselves to challenge their employers at a tribunal. Given the cost of legal advice, the implications of taking your boss to court and the possible delays of 18 months or more for a case to even be heard, this can be a daunting prospect.
And like Nadine, many discover that after spending months if not years battling through the courts, even winning your case may not guarantee justice.
A series of reforms over the last 20 years have left a patchwork of enforcement routes, none of which guarantee workers the money they’ve been awarded. In England and Wales, workers can ask a county court to appoint bailiffs or enlist high court enforcement officers via a separate “fast track” scheme. But both of these can cost money – and some workers end up poorer after winning a tribunal case.
The latest addition, the penalty enforcement scheme, is a free service intended to pressure employers to pay what they owe by fining them if they don’t. It was introduced in 2016 after a government survey found that 35% of workers had not received the money awarded by a tribunal and a further 16% had only been paid in part.
Frontline advisers said people often do not know how to enforce their awards, or give up after their employers refuse to pay because they are too exhausted by drawn-out tribunal processes to jump over another bureaucratic hurdle.