Jamie Oliver’s staff ‘win £500,000 compensation’ after restaurant empire collapse

Jamie Oliver’s staff have reportedly won a £500,000 payout in compensation after his restaurant empire collapsed.

The TV chef was forced to close his chain of Jamie’s Italian restaurants in 2019, and he appointed KPMG as administrators.

1000 members of staff were left out of work and creditors faced an £83million loss.

According to The Mirror 196 members of former restaurant staff won a tribunal claim when the company was found to have fallen short of the Trade Union Act, which requires employers to consult with employees before any closure. As staff were not consulted it was found that the Act had been breached.

However the company administrators cannot afford to pay the compensation out of the administration meaning the cost will fall to taxpayers.

The compensation will be paid to employees by the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS) which is part of the Insolvency Service, a Government agency. The RPS can then make a claim against the companies in administration.

One former employee alleged to The Mirror that they ‘were only told through email’ of the restaurant closures.

‘Some people were really upset and panicking,’ they added.

The TV star paid approximately £1million himself to make sure staff were paid until his businesses fell into administration.

The Naked Chef star previously described the fall of his empire as ‘very, very painful’.

‘This is the part of my life that I’ve been building up for 20 years,’ he said.

‘I just couldn’t make it last sustainably, and there’s a million reasons, that I’ve said a million times, as to what our challenge was, but I lost this time.

‘What happened to me was not unique – it’s been happening to small, medium and some large businesses all over the country.’

It was revealed in October 2019 that he had paid himself £5.2million months before the collapse.

Metro.co.uk has contacted Jamie’s publicist for comment. KPMG declined to comment when contacted by Metro.co.uk.

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