Ten former employees of a tech start-up company who never received any pay have been awarded costs totalling £227,110.

The 10 took their case against TVG Ltd to an employment tribunal - and each have received judgment in their favour.

Multiple claims had been lodged with the Manx Industrial Relations Service against Douglas-based fintech start-up firm for the unlawful deduction from pay.

Staff complained that they had not been paid their salary, holiday pay and expenses since the company was launched earlier this year.

TVG chief executive officer Jason Bourne-Williams did not contest a majority of the claims.

He previously told Isle of Man Newspapers that he intended to meet TVG’s liabilities. But there is no certainty that any of former employees will actually receive the costs they have been awarded.

The biggest award, of £47,970, was awarded to project management consultant Dr John Cowin, of Laxey, who received no salary from TVG for five months.

He told the tribunal that staff of the tech company did much of their work on whiteboards because there were no PCs.

Mr Cowin joined TVG on April 9 this year on a salary of £80,000 but said that ’alarm bells were ringing from quite an early stage’ after finding out that colleagues who had been there since March had not been paid.

His first salary was due at the end of April but that date came and went without payment.

Mr Cowin said he often requested information from Mr Bourne-Williams about when he would be paid but the answers he received were ’vague and lacked firm dates’.

Mr Cowin said a crisis had arisen in relation to rent in early May and the company lost access to the Cooil Road premises.

Operations were suspended until May 29 when TVG staff started working out of the offices of Orchard Recruitment for a time.

But from June 13, meetings were only held in coffee shops in Douglas and Castletown and even a pub in Port St Mary.

The tribunal ruled that each employee had a right to be paid their salary on time throughout their period of employment.

It said TVG failed to pay salary at all, despite many promises to do so and therefore it was just and equitable to award costs for unlawful deduction of pay.

Derek Boyle, who was taken on as head of facilities (region 1) in April at a salary of £67,000, was awarded costs of £20,713.

While his claim against TVG was successful, the tribunal dismissed his claim against Orchard Recruitment which did HR and payroll administration for TVG.

The tribunal accepted that Orchard did not act in any other capacity than agent but said it found it surprising that it did not carry out checks on companies registering vacancies with them.

Promises

Mark Baines joined the company on March 1 as a senior project manager on a salary of £80,000.

When his first month’s salary was not paid, Mr Bourne-Williams kept promising it was ’all being sorted’.

And when his April pay was also not paid, Mr Bourne-Williams was told that he had sold his home in Port St Mary and payment was being made from the proceeds of sale.

Then at the end of May, Mr Baines was called in to a meeting at Orchard Recruitment’s premises and told that he was being made redundant and given one month’s notice.

David Butterworth was made redundant at the same meeting, He had joined TVG as head of IT service operation on March 12 on a salary of £96,500. He was awarded costs by the tribunal of £34,821.

Oran Dykes was due to join TVG on May 16 as project manager on a salary of £58,000, having received a job offer from Rachel Shepherd of Orchard Recruitment.

But when he reported for work at Athol Street, the address in his contract, TVG were not there and he could find no other address for them. He was awarded costs of £5,502.