The entire workforce of Somerset print firm Butler and Tanner – 287 employees to be precise – was yesterday made redundant. Sacked without warning and with immediate effect. And this while the company and representatives of Unite were in talks at ACAS in Bristol, with strike action hanging in the air but not yet implemented.

We are told that Butler and Tanner is now being put into receivership. Yet on Thursday of last week company chairman Mike Dolan told PrintWeek that this would happen if the threatened strike went ahead. So Dolan is a liar as well as a corporate bully. He had previously accused the union of “election fraud” after a ballot of workers resulted in a 92% vote for industrial action.

Dolan then conducted his own ballot, but Unite’s Ann Field says that this was boycotted by the “vast majority” of union members. The company boss claimed that his ballot showed a majority of union members to be against a strike. A majority of those few union members who took part in his unofficial, informal and irregular ballot.

And to add insult to injury, along with receiving ungrammatical dismissal notices the sacked workers have been told that they will not receive their salary this month. The redundancy letters state that the company is “unable to invoice sufficient work to pay this month’s wages.”

So how can Dolan declare that Butler and Tanner’s suppliers and creditors will be paid in full?

Mike Dolan is a bounder and a cad.