Unpaid Inverawe staff stage protest

A banner saying No More Red Herrings. We demand our wages. Pay Up Patrick, also appeared on the main road at Inverawe to rally support.

Father-of-two Stephen Carmichael was one of the protestors. He has worked as a driver at Inverawe Smokehouse for eight years and is currently off sick.

He told The Oban Times he was offered a £7,000 redundancy package by smokehouse owner Patrick Campbell-Preston but the deal never materialised. Mr Carmichael said he is also owed £300 of his own money that he saved up in the work’s Christmas Club.

"If I don’t get my money I can’t afford to see my kids every other weekend. How can I have them stay with me if I don’t have the money to pay for electricity or food? They are 15 and 16, and like any other teenagers there are things they need. I won’t be able to give them a Christmas either," he said.

Mr Carmichael was one of three employees allegedly offered redundancies, but none of them ever received it. Mr Campbell-Preston told us in an earlier interview that he never offered any redundancies, but told The Oban Times he could have spoken to a few people and said they "might be plausible". 

Since that interview, we have seen a redundancy offer letter sent to one staff member, signed by Mr Campbell-Preston himself.

Mr Carmichael said: "I never got any redundancy money. He said it would see me right for six months and that he wanted his staff to be comfortable but he reneged on it. I’m on sick now. He’s supposed to pay contributions to my sick pay but they’ve not been paid and that’s affected how much I get from the government. 

"I’m struggling to pay bills. I’ve had some family help but missed credit card payments so extra charges are being added. I’m in a hole and it’s getting deeper. I desperately need the money Patrick promised and owes me."

Mr Carmichael did receive a small payment from Mr Campbell-Preston last month but it was only a tiny fraction of what he says he is owed.

Another protestor told us he worked at the smokehouse just short of 10 years. He has now found new employment but says he is still waiting for almost £4,000 that he is owed plus £600 of savings from the Christmas Club. Mr Campbell-Preston told us in an earlier interview that the club, with a monthly amount held back from wages, was established without his knowledge.

The man told The Oban Times: "It was brilliant when I first started working there but by the end it was toxic. There were constant empty promises about our wages coming in. I even had to cancel a family holiday this summer because I could not risk coming home to no money. We were gutted." 

A spokesperson for a group of staff and former workers now putting together their own case to take to a wages tribunal said: "A lot more people are now coming to the conclusion that they will never get the money they are owed. Work is carrying on to take this to tribunal."

In an article last month, we reported some staff were relying on food banks, living without heat or light at home, were behind with rents and even visiting A&E with stress.

Mr Campbell-Preston told us he was putting his ancestral home at Inverawe on the line to secure a £600,000 overdraft facility that would pay all money owed to staff and suppliers by the end of October, but this week staff working on the tribunal case had still not been paid.

The Oban Times asked Mr Campbell-Preston if he would like to comment and when would wages be paid. He did not respond.