THE 700 Club homeless hostel charity does valuable work in Darlington, but I feel that following the recent employment tribunal which found against the club, the comments of its founder, the Reverend Dr John Elliston (Echo, Feb 1), are misguided.
He would be better directing these towards the legal advisors who gave apparently flawed advice or to the local authority who appeared happy to move vulnerable people against their will.
The losers here are the former Salvation Army homeless hostel staff forced to take both organisations to a tribunal for justice and a redundancy payment.
It is well known that Tupe regulations – Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) – apply to “service provision change” (Tupe 2006 reg. 3 (I) (b)) as well as corporate takeovers, as indicated in the Echo report.
The 700 Club, which is facing a bill in excess of £100,000 following the tribunal, should not face ruin because of this judgement. The last accounts available on the Charity Commission website, at March 2010, show the organisation had substantial reserves (£395,000) and cash balances (£442,000).
Again, hardly the position portrayed in the Echo report.
I for one will not be following Dr Elliston’s advice to consider withholding funding from the Salvation Army in future.
David Pratt, Sedgefield, Co Durham.
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