Kaiam boss responds to '˜Grinch' claims as staff face Christmas without pay

Bardia Pezeshki has come in for fiere criticism since the news was announced.

Bardia Pezeshki, chief executive at Kaiam, the troubled technology plant in West Lothian, claims he has worked tirelessly and invested vast sums of cash to keep the firm in business, The Sun reports.

Around 350 workers were sent home on Thursday, with the company entering administration this weekend.

Stunned staff now face financial uncertainty over Christmas and have been called into an emergency meeting on Monday.

Kaiam workers called to Christmas Eve meeting amid pay row

An online support group has been set up and a community drop-in centre for donations to help Kaiam employees opened yesterday.

Mr Pezeshki provoked further anger as it emerged that he had jetted back to California just as the grim news of the firm’s closure and likely redundancies was announced to staff.

Furious workers and members of the public have taken to social media to slam Mr Pezeshki’s handling of the situation.

The tech tycoon said: “l am not sure l deserve the humiliation that me and my family are going through.”

“My wife and children feel abandoned because I dedicated so much to the company.

“I am not a Grinch”.

In a letter to local MSPs, who had demanded an explanation over the reasons behind the firm’s dramatic collapse, he added: “I know this is really painful but it was quite unpredictable.

“There is nobody chickening out or enjoying their holidays. l am not sure l deserve the humiliation that me and my family are going through.”

But Lothians MSP Neil Findlay says Mr Pezeshki’s words ring hollow.

“His sob story won’t find any sympathy from the workers he left high and dry and where is the windfall he got from selling another business for around £80 million?,” he said.

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