The Unite union is still pursuing claims on behalf of former employees at Grangemouth haulier Duncan Adams, which entered administration in March.

However, regional officer Mark Lyon warned that it could take years for the 50 claims to be processed by the employment tribunal.

The union said Duncan Adams had failed to consult with staff about their redundancies before it was wound down following significant losses.

Lyon said: “It can take years to work through the tribunal list. It’s not a compensatory payment, it’s a protective award claim. We have the claims for our members, in the region of 40 to 50. They never had any notice of losing their job, or a consultation on it. Not every employee put a claim in.”

The comments came after administrator Deloitte published a report stating that employees owed money for arrears of wages, salaries, holiday pay and pension contributions will probably not be paid in full from the administration.

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“We estimate that there will be 143 preferential claims totalling circa £188,000,” it said.

It is understood staff could make a claim through the redundancy payments service.

The report added: “The company incurred significant trading losses between 2016 and early 2018, which the director attributes largely to one key customer contract.

"The extent of the losses were not known to the director for some time as the audited accounts contained material misstatements (due to accounting errors) that were corrected in the accounts for the 18 months to 30 April 2018.

“Despite trading recovering to an approximately breakeven position in 2018, the build-up of creditors during previous years restricted the company’s cash-flow, which was exacerbated by the tightening of credit terms following the filing of the April 2018 accounts.”

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