'Positive' meeting with liquidator for sacked haulage staff

Sacked staff at tax debt-ridden haulage firm Target Express have been reassured over monies owed after a provisional liquidator was appointed to the company.

The order to safeguard assets was made less than 48 hours after the business ceased trading over non-payment of tax to the Revenue Commissioners.

Workers had been holding a sit-in at a depot in Cork and protests at the headquarters depot in Mulhuddart, north Dublin.

Accountancy and consultancy firm Grant Thornton offered to hold a series of meetings with employees tomorrow.

“The provisional liquidators will engage with staff of Target Express to ensure their terms and conditions of employment with regard to minimum notice period, documentation and redundancy are dealt with in line with statutory guidelines,” the liquidator said.

As plans for the liquidator were being drawn up, management persisted in blaming Revenue for the workers’ plight.

Sacked staff at the Mulhuddart headquarters depot in north Dublin claimed they were told by management that a €154,000 pot to pay unpaid wages has been frozen by the taxman.

David O’Gorman, one of the workers who occupied the Cork depot, said they have had no contact from the company, bar one email and a phone call.

“We were contacted by the regional manager. All he had to say was ’Leave; there’s no money, it’s pointless staying there’,” he said.

Joint liquidators Steve Tennant and Michael McAteer, of Grant Thornton, were appointed by High Court Judge Desmond Hogan.

The action was taken to immediately safeguard assets for the creditors and to remove the risk of assets being dissipated.

They will oversee disposal of assets from the Target Express holding company College Freight in the Republic.

Separate moves are expected in the Belfast courts to deal with the Northern Ireland division of College Freight.

Former Target Express worker Tom Cullen is one of the staff member's who met with the provisional liquidator earlier and has described the meeting as "positive".