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Crystal Umbrella Gone Bust

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    #21
    Re "no concrete evidence has been supplied/announced as yet to confirm your theory" I would suggest my track record of being correct has been repeated by the others piping up with their info.

    Cheers

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      #22
      Originally posted by CoolCat View Post
      Re "no concrete evidence has been supplied/announced as yet to confirm your theory" I would suggest my track record of being correct has been repeated by the others piping up with their info.

      Cheers
      Shame you couldn't provide a shred of evidence to back it up and it got to post 18 before someone offered some else credible evidence. You can be right by providing useful information or you can be right posting rubbish and have someone else bail you out.
      'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

      Comment


        #23
        But back on topic... This isn't a cool place for the Crystal employees to be in.

        Who exactly are your contracts with? I assume Unitum as Crystal is just a trading name? Can you have a contract with just a trading name? I'd be reading my contract word for word at this point if I were you guys. Anything in there about the contract ending if someone goes bump?

        Also now the liquidators have been engaged have you not been effectively dismissed immediately and as you haven't had any redundancy pay, notice and holiday pay your next step is to start unfair dismissal proceedings?

        Does this apply to umbrellas like it does normal employment?

        And what about this transfer to pendragon? Wouldn't they need to TUPE you over or re-employ you? They can't just pass you over can they?

        I'd be getting some proper employment advice. I'd also be asking the agencies what they can do to pull their money back and what diligence they've done and any insurances etc they've got.

        I imagine if this has happened to Crystal contractors the same has happened to Atlantic Umbrella contractors and all the other brands? Crystal says they've got 10,000 contractors. That's a bloody big mess.

        ------

        Just looking at the Unitum finances on Company check they've been in a mess for ages. If one of their brands has 10k contractors plus all the other brands how come they've had no cash for the last three years? Their net worth has been in the red since 2013 and which has been going the wrong way at pace every year.
        UNITUM OPERATIONS LTD. Free company accounts direct from Companies House. Download Accounts FREE

        I was going to ask shouldn't the contractors money be ring fenced like a solicitors but looking at those financials I guess not.

        Looks like a real solid setup that's been going for years but the figures don't agree.

        Dunno if I'm gonna get in trouble for all this but...

        Interesting to see Mr Alan Stuart Little of Unitum was also a director of Pendragon Client Account Limited 09856409 which has passed to MS JANET DE-HAVILLAND. What is interesting is there is ANOTHER MS JANET DE-HAVILLAND who has a separate entry showing Pendragon Consultancy (11330591). Seems hell of a coincidence. The Client account finances seem to be following a very similar downward slope that Unitum is. Dunno how relevant that is but scares the crap outta me.

        I'm really not smart enough to understand this big business stuff and all the multiple companies and the like so could be completely wrong but in my little world all that looks really bad to me. Anyone know more about this stuff and can elaborate?
        Last edited by northernladuk; 26 November 2018, 19:49.
        'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

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          #24
          Oh yeah and I don't think it would be a bad thing to go speak to Lucy at Contractor Umbrella. She should be able to offer some advice about employee rights and what situation you are in. Not sure I can put the URL in but just search for it in google. Phone is 01206 591 000

          Personally I'd be signing up with them while you are on the phone to her so you can get your next lot of payments and not relying on the new setup as well.
          'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

          Comment


            #25
            No relation to the Pendragon of old who cost my then company 9k? Still, some poor sod only submitted invoices every 3 months...

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              #26
              Hope their pension payments are up to date

              Otherwise people will find their pension pot short too

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                #27
                It appears my ears were burning

                If the letter has been received saying they are transferring you over to another company, then they would have to TUPE you over, they cannot simply provide you with a new employer. They will have to reissue a contract of employment to reflect your real employer if that has changed. Not sure how all of this stands with regards to GDPR although I do know that the employer should provide the employees with a privacy notice informing them that it is transferring their personal data to the transferee (unless the data is anonymised which is unlikely for employment purposes).

                Best practice says that the contractors monies should be ring-fenced to protect any fund that are not technically the umbrella's, that includes HMRC, VAT, Apprenticeship Levy and Pension liabilities, unfortunately that is not always the case, so let's hope they had that sorted.

                Not the best situation I am sure and as everyone says the background behind the businesses seems complex. From what I know the holding company is Unitum Operations Ltd (7399114), which sits with Crystal Umbrella (8474400) and Atlantic Operations (5908322) as brands under this. Under Atlantic, sits Atlantic Umbrella Company Ltd (4445010) and under Crystal sits Aqua Bubble (7388678). All very confusing

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                  #28
                  All very messy, I hope people concerned get sorted without too much loss of £££.


                  qh
                  He had a negative bluety on a quackhandle and was quadraspazzed on a lifeglug.

                  I look forward to your all knowing and likely sarcastic and unhelpful reply.

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                    #29
                    Gotta say I'm very surprised this thread is so quiet with (allegedly) 10k contractors from Crystal let alone the Atlantic Umbrella crowds being affected by this.

                    There must be new contracts flying around all over the place for a start let alone questions about payments, pensions and all the unknowns that come with changing employers.

                    And then are the things we don't know and didn't think about. What about finance? Surely they are all now going to have issues trying to get mortgages, loans and any other finance with their new employer only being a few months old?

                    Just hope it's quiet because it's gone OK.
                    'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

                    Comment


                      #30
                      Originally posted by northernladuk View Post
                      Gotta say I'm very surprised this thread is so quiet with (allegedly) 10k contractors from Crystal let alone the Atlantic Umbrella crowds being affected by this.

                      There must be new contracts flying around all over the place for a start let alone questions about payments, pensions and all the unknowns that come with changing employers.

                      And then are the things we don't know and didn't think about. What about finance? Surely they are all now going to have issues trying to get mortgages, loans and any other finance with their new employer only being a few months old?

                      Just hope it's quiet because it's gone OK.
                      probably like most people they only read the "general" part of this site

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