Former staff hit out at Laura Ashley administrators

Staff made redundant by Laura Ashley in Newtown have hit out at the way they have been treated.

Several former members of the company, which has gone into administration and only has a handful of staff working at its Newtown sites, have contacted MyNewtown to express concern.

Many who have carried years of employment with the company will now only receive basic redundancy pay from the government.

The company, established by Laura and Bernard Ashley in the 1960s in Carno, had always prided itself on caring about its staff.

However, those made redundant have said there were no communications with them from the Malaysian owners and little thanks to many who have been with the company all their career.

"All of the redundancies have been implemented by group phone call/web call. No consultation has been conducted with any of those holding jobs being made redundant," said one reader and former employee.

He criticised the administrators, PwC.

"PwC's claims of having reached out to redundant employees and having worked with the relevant agencies is simply untrue.

"No contact has been made with employees, even to thank them for their service (very long service in some cases) and no support has been offered. 

"Many redundant employees have struggled to ensure their final at us correct as outstanding holiday payments have been wrong and payments to the legally required stakeholder pension are overdue."

This week MyNewtown reported how the company's Chief Executive, Katharine Poulter, had said attempts to fund a buy-out of the company had failed.

More than 50 more staff were made redundant this week at sites including Texplan, the warehouse and administration.

It is understood there are now only a handful of staff working who are dealing with stock.

Some of Laura Ashley's high street stores have re-opened this week to sell existing stock.