FORMER cafe workers are owed thousands of pounds after it closed without notice, a tribunal has ruled.

Pavla Cervinkova and her partner Michal Patrovic, of Rotary Way, Colchester, lost their jobs when the CO1 Cafe in Trinity Street, Colchester shut.
They are among five members of staff owed a total of £6,585 in wages.

Even though a tribunal has ruled they should be paid back, they have not received a penny from the charity that ran the cafe, Youth Culture Limited.
 

Miss Cervinkova, 28, who was cafe manager for 18 months, said they felt used.
 

She is owed £2,851 and Mr Patrovic is owed £773.
She said: “It didn’t really make enough money at first because it had just started.
 

“But then we did make good money, especially over the summer of 2012.
“There was an annual meeting in September and we were told everything was alright, we were doing brilliantly and there were many plans for the  future.”
 

Miss Cervinkova said another meeting was held in October last year when some workers said they had had not received payslips.

Days later they learnt the cafe was shutting.

She said: “On October 9 we came to work and were told the cafe was closing. We were basically fired on the spot, we were shocked.”
 

Staff did not get paid for September or the first part of October.
Miss Cervinkova said a lawyer got involved and Mr Taylor paid half of September’s wages.
 

She said: “We went to tribunal with them and got a default judgement they have to pay us what we're owed.
 

“They had 42 days to contact the tribunal and appeal against it, but it never happened.
 

“The company, although it said it is in serious financial trouble, never declared liquidation. We still haven't heard anything from it.
“It's been nine months since we got fired on the spot and nothing's going on.”
 

A county court judgement had backed the tribunal ruling.


The Gazette tried to contact the Simon Taylor, the charity’s chairman of trustees, a via e-mail and phone numbers provided but did not get a response.