The Body Shop has admitted breaking employment law after a mass sacking of workers.

The retailer, which has stores in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Cirencester, went into administration last month.

It was announced last week that Cirencester would be among the next wave of 75 stores to close.

Administrators for The Body Shop, FRP Advisory, made 270 head office staff redundant last week. They were told over Microsoft Teams that they wouldn't be paid beyond the end of the day and wouldn't be provided with a redundancy package, as reported by The Independent.

The dismissed employees, including some who had worked for the company for more than a decade, were advised to claim unpaid wages and holiday pay from the taxpayer-funded Redundancy Payments Service.

Those who lost their jobs are reported to include at least 15 women either on maternity leave or soon to go on maternity leave, who will now only receive government maternity pay, rather than the packages they were offered as Body Shop employees.

Another staff member said they were: "on the verge of losing everything by a company that once valued ethics and community".

FRP Advisory admitted it had not followed "normal regulations" on properly consulting employees or their representatives before dismissing them, because it claimed there was "insufficient time" to do so.

It continued that "a swift reduction" in head office payroll costs needed, saying it had a statutory duty to take actions to benefit all of the company's creditors.

A group of more than 175 Body Shop employees is reported to be preparing to pursue a claim through the government's advisory, conciliation and arbitration service, Acas.

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