Hundreds of workers to sue over Lindsey Oil Refinery’s collapse

Hundreds of workers to sue over Lindsey Oil Refinery’s collapse

Luke Barr

Tue, September 1, 2026 at 6:05 PM GMT+3 3 min read

Hundreds of workers are preparing to sue Lindsey Oil Refinery for millions of pounds following the company's sudden collapse last year.

Union officials are representing employees and contractors who were made redundant by the insolvency, with each pursuing potential payouts of up to £6,000.

The claims, which will be heard in an employment tribunal, are based on the company dismissing staff without a consultation period.

Forthcoming claims will be issued against the administrators of Prax, which was the business behind the Lindsey Oil Refinery.

Given that the business is insolvent, the taxpayer will probably have to pick up the bill for any prospective damages. The Government's redundancy service would pay this.

Unite, the union representing the affected employees, triggered initial proceedings against the administrators of Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery last month to extract more information.

The legal fight comes after Prax collapsed suddenly in June last year with more than £1.5bn in debts, casting doubt on the future of the Lindsey Oil Refinery.

Almost 200 workers were made redundant in the wake of the administration, with a further 155 retained while a sale was pursued.

After months of uncertainty, Phillips 66 finally bought Lindsey Oil Refinery in April 2026.

However, the neighbouring facility confirmed it had no plans to restart standalone operations, leading to another 55 redundancies.

Unite said another 500 contractors also lost work because of Lindsey's closure, with the union representing all affected workers in their respective claims.

A Unite spokesman said: "The entire workforce at Lindsey Oil Refinery were treated appallingly and have lost their jobs through no fault of their own due to the mismanagement of others.

"Unite is committed to ensuring they receive at least some compensation for their loss of employment."

British law requires companies to engage in at least 45 days of consultation with staff if they plan to make 100 or more staff redundant.

Employees can sue for unfair dismissal if they weren't consulted properly.

Prax was founded by Winston Soosaipillai and his wife Arani Soosaipillai in 1999, shortly after the couple met while studying accounting at the University of Kent.

The business initially owned petrol stations but used heavy debt to build its empire. This included a deal to buy the Lindsey Oil Refinery from French oil giant Total in 2021. It was consistently loss-making in the run-up to Prax's collapse.

Mr Soosaipillai has since been accused by Glencore, a former supplier, of overseeing a £177m fraud. He has not commented publicly on the claims.

FTI Consulting, which was working for the UK's Official Receiver, declined to comment.

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