City Link parcel delivery company goes into administration

[dutchman]

Union calls for law change after Coventry delivery firm City Link collapse

The RMT union has called for a change in the law after it was revealed bosses of doomed Coventry delivery firm City Link took almost £350,000 in fees before its collapse.

Almost 500 City Link workers at the firm’s national headquarters in Siskin Parkway West, Baginton, found out on Christmas Day 2014 that their jobs were being axed.

They were among more than 2,700 workers across the country who lost their job when the firm’s imminent collapse was announced by the media.

It left 30,000 parcels waiting to be collected from City Link depots over the Christmas period.

Now new accounts have revealed Jon Moulton’s Better Capital group imposed a hefty charge on City Link – owned by a sister company – before its collapse.

Coventry suffered a total of 491 job losses as a result, and union bosses have hit out at the latest revelation.

In all, Better Capital claimed £345,141, on top of the £428,015 in fees it claimed from City Link in the previous year.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “This is a corporate scandal that refuses to go away.

“With the management knowing that City Link was going under they encouraged drivers to work through Christmas Eve in the knowledge they wouldn’t get paid while they were busy lining their own pockets.

“It’s another vicious kick in the teeth for the nearly 3,000 workers at City Link dumped on the stones.

“Today’s news shows again the raw and uncontrolled nature of bandit capitalism in Britain and RMT will continue to fight for a shift in the law that protects workers and punishes bad bosses.”

[rebbonk]

...bosses of doomed Coventry delivery firm City Link took almost £350,000 in fees before its collapse...

Naughty and certainly immoral, but not illegal.

[dutchman]

Employees made redundant on New Year's Day awarded 90 days' pay

An employment tribunal has ruled that workers who were made redundant from Coventry parcel firm City Link without consultation are entitled to money.

A total of 2,727 workers were told on Christmas Day 2014 that they could lose their jobs, and were made redundant on New Year’s Eve.

Around 600 of those were based at the firm’s national headquarters in Siskin Parkway West, Baginton, with the rest employed at more than 50 depots across the UK.

Hundreds of the former workers successfully pursued claims against the parcel delivery company at a tribunal in Leeds.

The judgment acknowledged that City Link made a "deliberate and calculated decision" not to comply with their statutory duty to consult with their employees over the impending redundancies.

Nearly 260 of those claimants were represented by Morrish Solicitors LLP and were each awarded 90 days’ pay.

Daniel Kindell, associate at Morrish Solicitors, said: “We are delighted to have been able to secure the best possible result in this case.

“The company defended this case throughout and its stance has been vindicated by the penalty imposed.

“We hope the tribunal’s decision gives ex-employees of City Link some sense of justice.

“It can only be described as a travesty that successful claimants can only claim a small proportion of this award from the government’s National Insurance Fund and City Link can continue to rely on its state of insolvency to the further detriment of those who worked so hard for it.”

[rebbonk]

“It can only be described as a travesty that successful claimants can only claim a small proportion of this award from the government’s National Insurance Fund and City Link can continue to rely on its state of insolvency to the further detriment of those who worked so hard for it.”

Rather a hollow victory.