No happy new year for City Link workers

‘a truly horrific catalogue of mismanagement’ – RMT

More than 2,700 staff from the collapsed UK parcel delivery service City Link will  be made redundant on New Year’s Eve, the RMT union has said.

That total is likely to include staff from the Edinburgh depot based in Livingston and members plan to join a demonstration outside the company’s Motherwell depot today.

Staff learned on Christmas Day that the company had gone into administration, in a move described as “disgraceful” by the union for transport workers.

Talks between union officials and administrators Ernst & Young were held on Saturday but the administrators have confirmed that ‘substantial redundancies are expected over the coming days’.

The meeting between City Link union RMT and administrators Ernst and Young ‘has exposed a truly horrific catalogue of mismanagement at the top of the company dating back to November which leaves more than two thousand staff facing redundancy on new years eve with a skeleton staff kept on for a couple of weeks to wind down the o‎peration’, according to union leaders.

At Saturday’s meeting the union was told that:

• the company were working with insolvency advisors since November without telling the staff or their union.

• the company was technically declared insolvent on the 22nd December but deliberately withheld that information. A plot to hold the announcement to Boxing Day was only thwarted by the RMT acting on information from a whistle blower.

• more than 2000 staff will be made redundant on New Years eve. City Link and it’s financial backers will have no liability for redundancy payments and the staff will have to apply to the government scheme. The remaining staff will be retained short term to wind down the company.

• individual sub contractors, owed thousands of pounds, are unlikely to see any of their money.

• there is no one in the frame to take over the company as a going concern but there may be a limited number of jobs available at other companies.

City Link, founded in 1969, was acquired by ‘restructuring specialist’ Better Capital in April 2013.

The company called in administrators on Christmas Eve after years of ‘substantial losses’, yet a November press release issued on behalf of the company paints a different picture. Just last month the Coventry-based company heralded it’s plans to ‘deliver an even more successful peak to last year’s winning performance’.

The press release, headlined ‘City Link plans ahead to beat last year’s successful peak performance’ reads:

With Christmas lights already starting to go up in many UK towns and the countdown to the festive season soon to begin, premium express carrier City Link has already got its plans in place to deliver an even more successful peak to last year’s winning performance.

City Link is now in the final stages of putting its Peak preparation plans into action, including bringing on line additional vans, collection and delivery drivers, warehouse staff and a range of new equipment and seasonal supplies.

It hopes to surpass last year’s success. The company received widespread praise for its smooth-running Peak operation – Mothercare even said that City Link had “really stepped up to the mark and delivered a great peak performance for our customers”.

To ensure that Christmas deliveries run smoothly this year City Link is adding an extra 1168 fleet collection and delivery drivers to its workforce to handle peak collections – 433 agency drivers and 735 subcontractors along with 100 additional trunking drivers in the busiest week.

In terms of vehicles, City Link is adding another 434 fleet collection and delivery vans to handle the extra demand, along with 80 additional trailers.

An extra 469 depot warehouse staff will be recruited along with around 30 additional operations support staff. Also, City Link is using 14 more forklift trucks and 963 more hand-held scanners.

City Link’s intensive preparation for the busy Christmas and New Year period also involves making plans for potential harsh winter weather with 1051 tons of rock salt on order together with 106 snow shovels and 24 snow spreaders to ensure they are well prepared to make deliveries in the event of a cold snap this winter.

Liam Tucker, City Link’s Operations Director, is extremely optimistic about this year’s Peak deliveries.

“City Link had one of its most successful peak periods in 2013 and we are looking forward to an even busier and more successful one in 2014. We’ve been planning since January and have worked with all of our larger customers to understand demand, put in place capacity and ensure contingency arrangements are there too,” said Mr. Tucker.

Operationally City Link is ready to cope well with increased demand; with a new automated sortation system in place to help increase throughput at the national hub in Coventry by up to 50% and with a £2m investment in new handheld scanners making life easier for all their drivers, including those temporary drivers coming in to help with the Christmas rush.

Customers will also benefit from a smooth delivery experience with City Link’s new “On Our Way” service which provides those receiving parcels with an estimated two-hour delivery slot and the option of re-arranging their deliveries if they’re not going to be in to sign for them. On Our Way benefits both the business customers sending parcels and the consumers receiving them: first time delivery rates increase and consumer satisfaction with deliveries rises.

Additionally the company’s Parcel Collection Points will also be open from 10.00 a.m. – 6 p.m. on Sundays from the 30th November through to the 21st December being the last Sunday before Christmas.”

RMT is demanding an immediate meeting with Vince Cable and his officials and a government supported rescue plan to save the company as a going concern.

Mick Cash, 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 while a plot was hatched to publicly collapse the business on Boxing Day when in fact it was already declared insolvent.

“What a despicable and callous ‎manipulation of thousands of workers and their livelihoods over Christmas as the venture capitalists cut and run leaving a trail of chaos and misery in their wake.

Vince Cable has said he will meet us in the New Year. Clearly that is too late and the business will have been smashed to pieces by then as the asset strippers hover like vultures over the corpse.

“RMT is demanding a meeting with Vince Cable right now, not when it’s too late. 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. “