Belfor-Relectronic has accused certain former staff members of running a “dirty tricks” campaign against the company in an attempt to wreck its recent merger with Relectronic-Remech.
Commercial director Neal Courtney said he believed ex-employees were behind the campaign of “misinformation and misrepresentation” targeted at the press, insurers, loss adjusters and its remaining staff.
He said the campaign was motivated by the desire of former staff to set up rival disaster recovery businesses in breach of their previous staff contracts with Belfor-Relectronic.
Courtney said: “We find it totally unacceptable that these people we thought we were parting with on good terms have deliberately misled us and persuaded others to join them in breach of their continuing contractual obligations.”
Insurance Times has been among the recipients of the emails wrongly purporting to come from Belfor-Relectronic managing director Dr Greg French. They have detailed personnel changes within the company and allege the merger has triggered a round of resignations and staff disaffection.
One message said: “The merger has done nothing whatsoever to boost staff morale and, in fact, is now confirming our worst fears that it simply was a hostile acquisition, not a merger of two friendly companies.”
Courtney confirmed that more than 20 staff have left Belfor-Relectronic following the merger of the two companies on January 1, 2001.
But he denied any suggestion that staff confidence had suffered as a result: “Morale has not been affected,” he declared.
He added: “The majority of staff from both Belfor and Relectronic-Remech have remained and are committed to the new company's objectives.”
