Allstate staff who sign non-disclosure to get bigger redundancy

American insurance company, Allstate, has confirmed they will make enhanced redundancy payments to Strabane staff who sign non-disclosure forms.

West Tyrone MLA, Daniel McCrossan, learnt of the move during an hour-long Zoom call with Stephen McKeown, managing director of Allstate NI, over possible local redundancies.

During the meeting, the MLA said Mr McKeown was probed on the number of job losses but would not give a percentage of the workforce.

Instead, the managing director assured Mr McCrossan job losses would be minimal and the Strabane office was still ‘central’ to the company’s plans.

However, it was confirmed all redundancies would be compulsory, not voluntary.

Mr McCrossan told the Strabane Chronicle, “Mr McKeown made it clear that Strabane was absolutely still central to Allstate’s plans and that these redundancies were not specific to here, but were something that was happening across the company across the world as they restructured and re-skilled.

“He wouldn’t confirm numbers but said the job losses would be “minimal”. He wouldn’t elaborate on whether that meant five per-cent, ten per-cent or more.

“I was disappointed he also wouldn’t elaborate on the processes being used to choose which staff were being made redundant.

“I made clear that transparency was the key, as was treating staff fairly. As there wasn’t clarity from Allstate over numbers and processes at the moment, local people would fear the worst.

“When I read out some of the emails we had received, he accepted that these decisions were having a massive impact on those involved.”

Mr McCrossan added, “Mr McKeown confirmed that job losses were compulsory, not voluntary, and that enhanced redundancy payments more than the legal minimum were being made if staff signed a non-disclosure form.

“While that is legal, I think it is wrong.”