Jobs lost in Yorkshire following collapse of City Link

ALMOST 100 jobs in Yorkshire have been lost following the collapse of delivery firm City Link.

More than 60 jobs have been lost in Leeds. 65 redundancies have been made in Morley, Leeds, which had a team of 74 and one redundancy has been made in the Leeds office, leaving no staff. In Rotherham, 31 jobs have been lost.

Leeds-based Hunter Kelly and Charles King and Midlands-based Tom Lukic of EY’s Restructuring team were appointed administrators on Christmas Eve and announced 2,356 job losses after a bid to buy the company failed.

An offer was made by a consortium which offered no money up front and “significantly undervalued the assets to be acquired”, administrators said.

371 people have been retained by Coventry-headquartered City Link to deal with the parcels that remain within the company’s network, and to assist the joint administrators in realising the company’s assets and winding down its operations.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said the government has put measures in place to help the affected staff find new jobs.
 
Hunter Kelly said: “At meetings across City Link Limited’s UK sites on Monday 29 December 2014 and Tuesday 30 December 2014, employees were informed that there would be substantial redundancies as no new business was being taken on. Many of these employees were sent home, and informed that they would shortly receive formal correspondence to confirm their work status.”

The City Link business, which had been owned by venture capitalist Jon Moulton’s Better Capital, lapsed into administration on Christmas Eve. Better Capital issued an apology to workers for the story being leaked to the media ahead of official confirmation.
 
The joint administrators have written letters to all employees affected by redundancy. The correspondence officially confirms redundancy and offers guidance for the claims procedure for redundancy and notice pay.
 
Employees affected by redundancy are being offered advice and support in making claims for redundancy and notice pay.

Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT union, said: “The confirmation from the administrators that they have just sacked 2,400 staff and are pulling the plug on any efforts to save City Link is a disgraceful and cynical betrayal that will wreck the lives of our members, many of whom are owed thousands of pounds.

“RMT does not believe that those pulling the strings had any interest in saving this business and were happy to cut and run leaving a trail of human misery in their wake. The City Link collapse has blown the lid off the cosy relationship ‎between bandit capitalism and the political elite.”

The union had urged Business Secretary Vince Cable to intervene in the administration and effectively nationalise the City Link operation. However, he declined to do so and said help to former workers would be available through support bodies such as JobCentrePlus.