A new mum claims she discovered she'd lost her job of eight years at Missguided from her colleagues. The former employee, who asked not to be named, says she was on maternity leave having recently given birth to twins, when the fashion company announced it had gone into administration last month.
Despite having worked at the firm's Trafford warehouse for eight years, the 36-year-old claims she only received formal notification she'd been made redundant days after the announcement.
She claims to have found out about the company's demise through a colleague, after staff were given 20 minutes notice to join an automated call about their fate.
READ MORE: Rise and fall of Manchester firm Missguided
The mum-of-two claims she was only able to work out she was one of dozens of staff being made redundant through the help of friends and after being locked out of her email account.
In a letter seen by the Manchester Evening News , appointed administrators Teneo have since admitted the company has 'no funds' to pay her statutory notice pay, and that she'd have to claim any money owed from the government.
The former staff member says she is now having to claim statutory maternity pay and take on the stress of finding a new job while looking after two new-born babies.
Speaking to the M.E.N, she said: "I worked for the company for eight years and they didn't even have the respect to tell me they were making me redundant and they completely failed to acknowledge I'm on maternity leave.
"I found out about the company going into administration from a colleague that had been on one of the phone calls. There was a lot of confusion about who had been made redundant.
"Myself and another person on maternity leave had to work out we were being made redundant via the ID code given and then when they locked our email accounts.
"The first official contact I had with Teneo was when I received a letter through the post on the same day that it was announced Missguided had been bought by the Fraser Group."
The former employee, who lives in Stoke-on-Trent, would commute to the warehouse in Trafford Park every day - including throughout the pandemic. She went on maternity leave at the beginning of March and was due to return to work in November.
"For me, I have never worked for a company like it," she said. "I loved the people I worked with and found the job really satisfying. I never had any issues until this.
"Throughout Covid it was pretty tough to keep up with getting stock and doing our best for the customers and I was still travelling from Stoke to Manchester each day.
"At Christmas they said they couldn’t pay us early and that’s when Alteri were brought in. That’s when we first realised the business was struggling."
Missguided was saved in a takeover believed to be worth around £53m by investment firm Alteri, which announced redundancies in December as part of a turn-around plan. But the company's finance problems continued to persist.
The former worker went on maternity leave on March 3, and says she didn't hear anything more until May 30, when staff claim they were asked to join a call with 20 minutes notice.
"Staff were given two different codes for two different calls with 20 minutes notice. One of the messages said you were being made redundant and the other said you weren't," she said.
"Because the calls were at such short notice people started sharing the wrong links to the wrong people which caused a lot of confusion. It was just an automated message."
The mum claims she didn't receive formal notification of her own redundancy until a letter arrived days later - after it had already been announced the company had been brought out by Mike Ashley's Frasers Group on June 1.
"My letter said that as of May 30 I was no longer employed by Missguided and they had no money to pay me so I have to claim from the government," she said.
"I am having to claim statutory maternity pay and I think I can claim about seven weeks notice pay but it’s nowhere near what I would have been paid. I am lucky to have been there that long, some people have left with absolutely nothing.
"The problem I’ve got is that I now have to find a job whilst I also have two very young children to look after. But it’s not even just about the money, it's about the lack of respect.
"I worked for the company for eight years and they didn’t even have the respect to tell me that they were making me redundant and they completely failed to acknowledge I’m on maternity leave."
The former employee says she has now approached Manchester-based solicitors Aticus, who are considering legal action against the company over the way the redundancy process was handled.
"It's not really about the money, it's the principal," she said. "We have worked our socks off and we just want what we are owed."
Administrators Teneo have been approached on behalf of Missguided by the Manchester Evening News.
