Staff at a Merseyside printing factory who lost their jobs just days after Christmas were sent letters brutally informing them that they had been terminated.
The ECHO previously revealed that 196 jobs have been cut at the Liverpool base of Communisis, a printing and business services company that is headquartered in Leeds.
The company, which has a printing base at Speke's Estuary Commerce Park in Liverpool, has appointed administrators and is making a total of 638 redundancies across its various sites.
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Workers told the ECHO of the confusion and chaos that erupted and hit out at how the situation was handled and how the news was delivered to staff.
Now the ECHO has seen a harshly worded letter sent to employees telling them bluntly of their jobs being cut and letting them know that no company redundancy would be available.
The letter, from administrators James Clark and Steve Absolom, sent to workers at the Speke factory, states: "This letter is to confirm that your employment is terminated by reason of redundancy with effect from 28 December 2023. Your P45 will be forwarded to you as soon as possible."
It adds: "You may be entitled under Employment Rights 1996 to make claims (up to certain limits) from the Redundancy Payments Service," before advising the sacked workers to visit the government's redundancy website to apply for any claims.
Staff previously spoke about how they were initially informed that their jobs had gone.
One employee. who has worked at the Speke site for 12 years said: "Like many people I had booked time off over Christmas. I had no idea anything was happening until my line manager said there was an email being sent out.
"The email didn't come until after 5pm, so many people won't have checked it and it invited us to a call at 6pm. There was no one from our company on the call, none of our leaders, no one from human resources to explain the situation.
"It was the administrators who gave a short message that said everyone on the call was being made redundant with immediate effect and that we would need to apply for redundancy pay from the government."
She added: "It wasn't even clear who was on the call, they didn't check who was or wasn't there. We couldn't see anyone's faces. It was just a voice telling us we had lost our jobs."
The woman said she feels "upset" at the way the situation was handled, adding: "I thought something like this might happen but I thought it would be handled in a much more professional way. We have worked hard for this company and we didn't even get a message from our leaders thanking us for our work and explaining what was going on."
A statement from the administrators said Communisis and particularly its Customer Experience business had been experiencing "challenging trading conditions for some time." The statement said that over recent months the group had explored different options but in the end its directors took the decision to appoint administrators.
The administrators completed a sale of shares and assets of parts of the business to Paragon Customer Service Communications, based in London. The transaction will safeguard 581 jobs, it was stated.
However, with certain operations ceasing at the group's facilities in Leeds, Cramlington and Liverpool, a total of 638 employees will be made redundant. A total of 196 of those jobs will be lost at the Liverpool site.
Stephen Absolom, managing director at Interpath Advisory and joint administrator, said: “First and foremost, we recognise that this will come as a devastating blow to those Communisis workers who have been impacted by redundancy.
“Our immediate priority will be to work with all affected employees to ensure that the full range of support is available to them.
“We will be making contact with Communisis’ key competitors, customers and other companies who work in this space to enquire around possible employment opportunities for staff. We will collate all relevant information, including contact details such as telephone numbers and hotlines, and we will also be speaking as a matter of urgency with the Job Centre Rapid Response Unit.
“We are also liaising with the Insolvency Service in relation to the timing of redundancy payments via the Redundancy Payments Service.”
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