70 former Fifteen Cornwall staff receive £200,000 payout

Seventy former employees who lost their jobs when the Fifteen Cornwall restaurant closed last year have won a payout of more than £200,000 following a successful legal claim.

The group will receive the equivalent of eight weeks’ pay after a tribunal found there were failures in the redundancy process.

Fifteen was founded by Jamie Oliver in 2006 as a social enterprise to train unemployed or disadvantaged young people as chefs, and was run under licence by the Cornwall Food Foundation charitable trust.

It announced its sudden closure in December 2019, with the loss of 78 jobs.

Employers are required by law to consult with staff for at least 30 days where 20 or more employees are likely to be made redundant.

Staff members are entitled to compensation, called a Protective Award, where that does not happen.

Citizens Advice Cornwall helped former Fifteen staff members make applications to an employment tribunal, which ruled 70 employees should receive payment in a hearing on 20 November.

This will be paid by the government’s Redundancy Payments Scheme as both the charitable trust and Fifteen restaurant business are insolvent.

Citizens Advice adviser Martin Jackson, said: “This is a great result for the former employees. The extra money will help tide them over Christmas. Many have suffered a double whammy from being made redundant with no notice last winter and since then have been unable to find stable jobs in hospitality and catering due to lockdown.”

The sudden closure of Fifteen led to the launch of a crowdfund for staff, which raised £5,000 to help them through the Christmas period.

The former Fifteen site is to be transformed into seven beach loft suites by the Watergate Bay hotel, which owns the property.

Watergate Bay hotel declined to comment.