Workers sacked by text message

MORE than 2,000 workers at Britain’s largest personal injury claims company were coming to terms with redundancy last night — after many were sacked by text message.

Manchester-based The Accident Group (TAG), which was set up 10 years ago, helped customers receive compensation for injuries suffered in accidents. The company was founded by husband-and-wife team Mark and Deborah Langford. Mr Langford celebrated his 39th birthday yesterday. TAG was hit by yesterday’s job losses after its parent company, The Amulet Group, was put into administration.

Many employees at TAG, which has in the past been accused of aggressive selling methods, spoke of their anger last night after they learnt of their fate by text message.

The message asked recipients to call a number at head office, which contained the voice message from administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). It said: “All staff who are being retained will be contacted today. If you have not been spoken to, you are therefore being made redundant with immediate effect.” Staff have been told there will be no funds to pay May salaries and that they should make claims for outstanding pay to the DTI. The message adds: “I must apologise for the nature of this call. I would have preferred to have done this on a face-to-face basis. On the timescale available, this has not proved possible.”

Amulet’s company statement described the job losses as a “tragedy” and said that TAG had partly “been a victim of its own success”.