Thursday, May 03, 2012

MG Rover pays out £3

Former MG Rover workers are to be rewarded with just £3 each following a seven-year battle for redundancy payments in the wake of the collapse of Britain's last major carmaker. John Towers, Nick Stephenson, John Edwards and Peter Beale – the Phoenix Venture Holdings businessmen who bought the company for £10 in 2000 and then paid themselves and managing director Kevin Howe a total of £42m.

Shortly after Rover's 2005 collapse Towers said: "What we are trying to do is place a fortune into the benefit of all of the employees. We've launched the employee trust .."That's got gross assets in excess of £50m. There are clearly creditors to pay ... but I'm very confident it will have millions of pounds available for those employees."

However, the fund has ended up with just over £22,000 in its coffers, which it needs to share among approximately 6,500 workers who lost their jobs.

When Phoenix acquired Rover in May 2000, they did so with the enthusiastic backing of the then Labour government. The then industry secretary Stephen Byers was cheered by MPs

Rover workers hailed John Towers as he arrived at the Longbridge plant in a Rover 75, chanting: "There's only one John Towers".

A miserly miserable 3 quid compensation? Who is cheering now for capitalism ?

Source

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