Vince Cable urged to save City Link staff from New Year’s Eve job losses

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/27/vince-cable-city-link-job-losses-rmt-talks

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More than 2,000 workers will lose their jobs on New Year’s Eve because of the collapse of parcel delivery firm City Link, officials from the RMT union have claimed.

RMT was in talks with administrators Ernst and Young on Saturday in an effort to hammer out a deal to prevent thousands of redundancies at the courier.

But after being locked in discussions all day, union officials said they were no closer to a deal.

They urged the business secretary, Vince Cable, to step in immediately to help broker a rescue package.

RMT said it had been told by administrators that more than 2,000 staff will be made redundant on New Year’s Eve. Remaining staff will be retained in the short term to wind down the company, union officials said.

Mick Cash, the RMT general secretary, said: “It is crystal clear from today’s meeting that there has been a truly horrific catalogue of mismanagement at City Link and that staff and their union have been starved of basic information.”

Cash said Cable must meet the union immediately and talks in the new year would be “too late”.

He said: “We want to put a plan together for a government-backed rescue that protects the business and the jobs it supports. If the government can nationalise the bankers then they can nationalise City Link, which is clearly in the public interest.”

City Link announced on Christmas Day that it was going into administration after years of “substantial losses”.

Officials have met in Leeds to discuss the fate of the firm’s 2,727 staff, and RMT officials have promised to stay in talks for as long as it takes to salvage jobs.

City Link operations have been suspended at all its depots until Monday, when customers and those expecting deliveries will be able to collect their parcels.

Better Capital, an investment firm led by the veteran venture capitalist Jon Moulton, bought the courier group for just £1 in April last year from its previous owner, the pest control firm Rentokil.

A number of staff will be retained to help return parcels to customers and help with winding down the company, Ernst and Young said.

Ernst and Young said it began working with City Link at the end of November to consider what to do if plans to turn the company around did not work.

It said that on 22 December shareholders rejected restructuring plans and Ernst and Young was asked to take steps to prepare for the administration of the company.

The administrators were appointed after the close of business on Christmas Eve “due to the increasing level of rumours”, it said.

EY confirmed that substantial redundancies are expected to be announced over the coming days.