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Firms on the brink
Date published: 08 February 2013
TWO large Chadderton firms face an uncertain future amid troubling claims from workers.
Staff at Greenbooth Construction were marched off the premises as management told devastated employees trading had “ceased”.
And workers at Sellers Engineering Ltd claim not to have been paid for two weeks amid reports the firm is in administration.
Only 16 months ago Sellers was praised by business chiefs as one of Greater Manchester’s export success stories.
Calls from anonymous workers to the Chronicle have revealed the hardships of both long-lived companies.
Management from both firms failed to respond to numerous requests for information.
One employee from Greenbooth, a civil engineering and building contractor, said: “There were people laid off last year, but there was no inkling this was going to happen.”
Over the past 45 years the Hunt Lane-based firm has forged strong relations with councils across Greater Manchester — including Oldham, for whom contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds have been undertaken
According to staff, bosses at Sellers have ordered an administrator to take over the running of the company.
One man told the Chronicle: “I used to work there. (Staff) have told me the company has opted for voluntary liquidation, and that the staff haven’t been paid for weeks.
The Chadderton based-firm has been around since 1975, manufacturing waste and recycling products including bins and skips.
Comments
Bet the higher ups have been paid though.
Both companies rely on Council work offering excellent reliable services the Government couldn't give a damm what happened to their promises to replace public sector jobs with private sector jobs?
The treatment of directors to staff in general now is criminal. Employees throw their effort into companies for years and end up treated like dirt, receive a lack of information, no wages and the prospect of the scrap heap. Have the explored a buy-out, a staff buy-out, re-finance? It they communicated and encouraged dialogue with the staff I'm sure more companies would benefit.
I agree with Flake this government is slowly killing the country we need to get them out as soon as possible, they waste money just like Labour but they are making people jobless, the 2015 election will be fun to watch might be worth getting a few beers in when watching that.
@flake How can those left to clean up the mess be blamed for it's creation. Osborne is actually doing a superb job in balancing inflation, interest rates, public spending & debt management. Lift up your head & look at Spain.
As for the EU migration issue, wasn't it Labour who told us only 13,000 would come from poland? It is they who destroyed this country, no one else. It's all unravellign before our eyes.
Such sad news, two companies that are part of Oldham's identity. I hope that there is some way that these two companies can continue to trade. As for the government it doesn't take a genius to work out that, with all the cut backs and 'trimming the herd' that companies can't survive, not saying that this is in any way the government fault though it means more people out of work & not paying tax through wages, therefore not contributing to the economy. Let's get back to basics.
Come one ProDriver where did I ever suggest the Tories created it.
Balancing inflation & interest rates - responsibility of the Governor of the BoE, not the Chancellor
Public spending? Well every cut back forces the economy into recession followed by greater borrowing and then more cuts - that's the economic spiral of death and the reason we're entering an unheard of triple dip recession.
Debt Management? Come on! it's still rising, faster now than under Labour!
The company i work for is booming and i am looking forward to a pay rise in april + a bonus, firms need to work a lot smarter now than ever before, we adopted lean manufacturing a few years ago at first i was sceptical but we are going from strength to strength.
Very pleased for you Orangepeel,I myself will not be getting a rise or bouns this year. However I do agree with your comment, but this only works if you have clued up managers.
Have Your Say
Things are getting worse, and unlikely to get any better with the ConDems set on a course to ruin the economy. There is now a £66 Billion shortfall, Milliband will be forced to either cut savagely or bankrupt the country.
Add in the possible million Romanians & Bulgarians & the UK will not be able to support the services we currently enjoy.
As the economy is driven further into the ground we will see more job losses like this and further cuts in the economic death spiral.
By Flake @ 08/02/2013 14:39:04