FOUR women who worked for Standby Virtual Office Ltd have been told that there is no money within the company to pay them any redundancy payments after it ceased trading in January.

The former employees, who had been based at Horsingtons Yard in Abergavenny, took their claim for loss of earnings in lieu of notice and their redundancy claims against Susi Cernoch, the company's managing director, to an employment tribunal.

The women, Sam Pearce, Ann Whomersley and Margaret Ferrant appeared at the tribunal in Cardiff last Friday, while Sarah Williams was unable to be present at the hearing.

Ms Cernoch also failed to appear, but Paul Johns working for bankruptcy specialists Reviva UK, which is handling the affairs of Standby Virtual Office, appeared on her behalf.

Ms Pearce from St Andrews Crescent, told the tribunal that the first time she knew that the company was in trouble was when she received a text message from Reviva UK asking her to contact them.

She said, "At the time I was on maternity leave and the message asked me to contact Mr Johns over my employment.

"As I didn't know if this was a hoax message I contacted the office asking to be put through to the boss, but instead I was put through to Mr Johns.

"He told me the company had ceased trading and that I was effectively being made redundant after two years employment with Standby Virtual Office ."

Tribunal chairman Claire Collier listened to the other former employees giving similar reports on how they were informed of the company's closure on January 25.

Mrs Whomersley of Delafield Road told the tribunal that she had been summoned to a meeting on that day. She added, "I was given a choice of working with Ms Cernoch at her home for two days a week at her similarly named company or take redundancy. I chose redundancy."

Ms Ferrant from Plas Derwen also attended the meeting and added that she had worked for the company since April 1998.

Mr Johns told the tribunal that the redundancy claims were not being contested. He added, "The company does not have enough money to have anybody handling its debt claims.

"Standby Virtual Office is not insolvent, it is now a dissolved company."

Tribunal chairman Miss Collier said,"This is an uncontested claim for redundancy and therefore I find in favour of the women and have awarded amounts as set out in my calculations according to age and length of time employed with the company at dismissal.

"However as the company has ceased trading there are no funds available to pay these amounts from the company itself and each claimant will have to apply to the Government's National Insurance compensation scheme for their redundancy claims.

She added, "Payment for work in lieu of notice is not payable under this scheme and the judgment notice should be enough evidence to prove that you have made reasonable steps in trying to obtain your redundancy money."

Speaking collectively afterwards the women said, "The whole matter of the winding up of the company could have been handled with sensitivity.

"After the amount of time we have all worked at Standby Virtual Office we would have thought we would have been given a little more respect by our former boss. She has washed her hands of us."