One interesting aspect of the situation at MG Rover is that it is arguable that anyone made redundant would have a case for Negligence against the DTI ministers that caused the downfall of the company through their briefings.
One would presume that this case would be against the DTI as a ministry.
If we look at the basic financial loss.
Each worker has probably lost £20,000 or so in redundancy.
That for the 6,000 workers is £120,000,000
Then they have lost about £10,000 on their car loans.
That's another £120,000,000 because of the fact that there are 12,000 car loans.
Then you have the dealers and the supply chain.
All in all the DTI might have to fork out around £500,000,000.
Not a nice thing for the DTI to think about.
One would presume that this case would be against the DTI as a ministry.
If we look at the basic financial loss.
Each worker has probably lost £20,000 or so in redundancy.
That for the 6,000 workers is £120,000,000
Then they have lost about £10,000 on their car loans.
That's another £120,000,000 because of the fact that there are 12,000 car loans.
Then you have the dealers and the supply chain.
All in all the DTI might have to fork out around £500,000,000.
Not a nice thing for the DTI to think about.
Comments
It seemed like more than the normal workers criticism of management.
I am on record (see blog) as being critical of the Phoenix Management. I spoke to them in 2003 and was threatened with legal action by one of them.
If the Labour Party had not been so slavish we could have done a lot better on this. Labour were so happy to see the community squeezed out of the original bid that they have to accept responsibility for the situation.
In any event being as it is such a large sum of money the costs would be a very small sum in comparison.
As you know I have been critical of the Tory record and of the Phoenix Management.