MAG's new company name: 'Nice Employer Limited'
Motorcycle Action Group accused of ‘childish’ company name change after losing employment tribunal
THE Motorcycle Action Group has changed one of its company names to ‘Nice Employer Limited’ after losing an employment tribunal.
MAG Membership Services became Nice Employer Limited two months after the riders’ rights group lost an appeal against the tribunal’s decision that three employees had been constructively dismissed.
Nich Brown, MAG’s former General Secretary and one of the three constructively dismissed, said the name change was a ‘childish’ reaction to the tribunal’s conclusion.
Brown told Visordown: ‘It seems cynical, childish, unnecessary and fairly typical of MAG’s leadership.’
He said people could ‘figure out for themselves’ the motive for the name choice, adding: ‘They lost a court case which clearly said the directors had acted wrongly and staff had done nothing wrong.’
Visordown reported last year how the tribunal heard complaints of intimidation and bullying made against MAG’s director Neil Liversidge.
Former MAG Campaigns Manager Paddy Tyson was also one of the three to be constructively dismissed.
The new company name is the latest in a series of changes filed by MAG with Companies House in the months before and after the tribunal hearing in February last year.
First two new companies were created, The Motorcycle Action Group Limited on January 16 last year and MAG Membership Services Limited a month later on February 14.
On March 6 last year, Liversidge wrote in an email to MAG’s directors that the group had ‘outsourced all its functions’ to the new company The Motorcycle Action Group Limited. On August 6, MAG (UK) Limited, the company the group had been operating as since 1992, went into liquidation.
The tribunal appeal was struck out on July 17 and on September 17 the group changed the name of MAG Membership Services Limited to Nice Employer Limited.
All of Nice Employer’s directors currently listed at Companies House - Patrick Van Aalst, Valerie Lavender and John Mitchell - are former directors of the old company, MAG (UK) Limited. Mitchell is listed as National Chairman on MAG's website although the post has been held by Lavender since April. Mitchell and Lavender, who uses her middle name Selina, are also both listed at Companies House as directors of The Motorcycle Action Group Limited.
Liversidge was secretary and director of Nice Employer Limited when it was created last year (as MAG Membership Services) but resigned after a week, on February 21. He was director of the old company, MAG (UK) Limited, and remains director of The Motorcycle Action Group Limited.
Visordown asked for comments from Lavender and Mitchell. A member of staff at MAG's offices said she did not have permission to pass on Van Aalst's contact details.
Mitchell responded to our enquiry but declined to comment specifically on the decision to change the company name to Nice Employer or on Brown's suggestion that it was a 'childish' reaction to the tribunal judgement. Mitchell said: 'The story is really sour grapes on his [Brown's] part.'
Liversidge said of the name change: ‘I can’t remember the precise reason for the change. It was just a detail change.
‘As far as I recall it was all to do with the fact that we’d bought out the name and goodwill of MAG.
‘We did it on the advice of our lawyer. Our lawyer advised us to call it something without MAG in it and we came up with Nice Employer. We are very nice employers.
‘All through the closure of the company and the opening of the new one we followed the advice of our lawyers and accountant.’
Liversidge added: ‘MAG has never done more for bikers than it’s doing today.’
Lavender sent a response on June 26 2015 which included: 'It is unbelievable that Visordown considers there is so little news that reporting a simple name change from nine months ago is newsworthy. MAG is full of very passionate people that rightly feel aggrieved by the continued negative focus of reporting when it is doing so much positive work...
'We have great staff doing great work bringing the organisation in front of decision makers across the UK. We have even greater volunteers that give untold amounts of hours to run successful events such as the Farmyard Party where we attracted more new members as well as those who have been with the organisation through all the negative publicity. MAG is going strong and making a real difference to those that want to be able to ride bikes long in to the future.'
