Solidarity Federation in Manchester yesterday (13 February) held a picket outside local burger restaurant Super Awesome Deluxe, following the sudden closure of all Almost Famous burger restaurants across Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. Over 110 employees made redundant are now owed more than £200k in unpaid wages, tips, holidays and notice pay.

“Monthly paid staff effectively worked for nothing in January”, said the group. “Rather than getting outstanding wages and holidays, staff were told to apply via an external company and the Government’s Redundancy Payment Services”.

SolFed claims that the owners of both burger chains knew “at least a fortnight beforehand about the pending insolvency” but chose to keep their staff in the dark. Many workers only found out they were losing their job from social media on the morning of the announcement.

“They launched a new burger restaurant, Super Awesome Deluxe, in Manchester’s Northern Quarter in November, yet expect staff to believe they lack funds”, said SolFed. “They can fund secret raves with rappers at Super Awesome, so they’re capable of paying Famous staff their due”.