Chesterfield shop staff 'owed money' after town centre store goes into administation
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Kelly Farrar, 29, was made redundant when rent-to-own retailer BrightHouse went bust just days after closing all its stores due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The firm’s Chesterfield store, on Burlington Street, was one of around 240 across the country to cease trading.
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Hide AdAdministrators Grant Thornton were appointed to keep running the business and collect money from customers.
Kelly says she and other staff had been told just weeks earlier that jobs were safe, and she has not even received a letter or phone call from the company explaining the situation.
“It made me feel was as though all the work and time I gave to the business was for nothing,” Kelly said.
“We didn’t even get a call from our regional manager asking if we were ok, the only person who contacted me was my store manager.
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Hide Ad“Other than that there was nothing from the company, not even a letter saying thank you for the time we put into the business.
“Then we had to claim for redundancy with no one to guide us through it.”
Kelly, who worked for BrightHouse for more than four years, says she and other staff are owed two weeks of wages, from March 15 to 30.
“On top of this I have a 10-year-old daughter and being made redundant on her birthday wasn’t the nicest thing to have happened,” Kelly said.
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Hide Ad“The way we were told was on a conference call at 1pm which said ‘if you receive a text or email in the next hour then you will be one those who are no longer working for the business’, to then go onto another call to explain what happens after. Quite honestly, the call wasn’t useful for me personally at all.”
We received no reply from BrightHouse after asking them if they wished to respond to Kelly.
Administrators Grant Thornton have said: “We would like in these uncertain times to do our utmost to ensure the wellbeing of BrightHouse customers and employees.”