SHOPWORKERS' trade union leader John Hannett has called on the Government to amend their Deregulation Bill to help save jobs and protect workers’ interests by preventing administrators from rushing to close struggling companies.

Usdaw has identified three key issues which have arisen from the union’s dealings with administrators involved with Kwik Save, Ethel Austin, Comet and Woolworths: • The breaking of the good working relationship with the existing management team in the companies concerned.

• The difficulties surrounding the Administrators' use of confidentiality to engage in any dialogue with the Union.

• The complete lack of any meaningful consultation over redundancies.

John Hannett said: “Our experiences of dealing with administrators in respect of company insolvency have left us with a number of concerns.

“The primary role of administrators should be to find new buyers for the business and safeguard the employees, suppliers and other creditors of the company. As a trade union we are keen to help them achieve that. “Finding a new buyer also saves a significant amount of money for the taxpayer in avoiding state redundancy payments, because a failure to engage in meaningful consultation risks a protective award being made against the employer. “However, administrators face no such financial obligation because they close down the company, so successful claims are met by the taxpayer from the Government’s National Insurance Fund.

“If Administrators were financially liable for the protective award, they would be much less likely to ignore their statutory duty to meaningfully consult with employee representatives.

“The Government has chosen to look at issues around insolvency and the role of administrators in their Deregulation Bill.

“This provides a golden opportunity to end the perverse financial incentive for Administrators not to comply with legal obligations on collective redundancy consultation.”