RMT calls on Government to give assurances to workforce caught in Carillion financial crisis.
General Secretary Mick Cash said;
“The Government should be giving clear-cut assurances to the workers who are watching the Carillion crisis play out on their TV screens this weekend. They are caught in the crossfire of a financial crisis that is not of their making and Ministers should be giving them the guarantees that RMT and other unions have been demanding.
“Thousands of jobs, and a whole raft of essential services and works, are hanging by a thread this weekend and the reports that administrators and a team from Price Waterhouse are now on stand by waiting to move in comes as no surprise to the trade union as we have been through these corporate failures plenty of times before.
“RMT has called on the Government to put in place a programme that transfers the rail infra-structure works over to Network Rail and which takes the out-sourced facilities work for the train companies directly in house rather than relying on these speculative chancers.
“Serious questions are being asked yet again about the judgement of Chris Grayling who has awarded huge contracts to a company that was already known to be in serious financial trouble. He now has a moral responsibility to give the staff in the transport sector caught up in the Carillion crisis guarantees that they will not be left to pay the price for the failures of others.
“RMT has heard plenty about the Government holding meetings. What we haven’t heard about is a concrete plan of Government action which protects jobs, pensions and services. Rather than prevaricating they should be getting on with it.”