Firkins staff in fight for pay

Workers were left with a wages backlog, with some owed more than £15,000, when Firkins' West Bromwich bakery collapsed, the Express & Star can reveal today.

Firkins announced the closure of the bakery in May shedding 40 jobs but the firm's 33 shops survived.

Drivers and bakery workers were made redundant when Newbridge Bakery (Production) Ltd, which owns the bakery in Black Lake, went into liquidation.

Now it has been revealed former staff were owed £257,868 when the bakery folded. That amount included £29,372 outstanding wages, £4,390 unpaid holiday and a further £224,106, which bosses said was redundancy money for staff who gave the company up to 30 years of service.

A total of 45 workers claimed they were owed a mixture of wages and outstanding redundancy.

There was only £17,800 left over from the firm's liquidation, which included the sale of machinery. That was used to repay some of the wages.

The planned sale of the bakery, on the market for £650,000, could not help towards payments, as it was leased by Firkins, director Ian Bolderston said.

Mr Bolderston added the Government's National Insurance Fund, which is funded by the taxpayer, covered redundancies.

He said: "The reason some people were owed more than £15,000 was because some people had been with the company for 25 to 30 years."

Trade creditors, including ingredient suppliers, Sandwell Council's business rates department and revenue and customs were left owed a combined £366,444. The full extent of the debts was revealed in a statement of affairs for the company.