City Link logistics staff seek jobs amid recrimination
A City Link Job Board has been set up on Facebook where jobs can be posted by companies interested in attracting former City Link staff.
You can access the job board here.
A number of couriers including APC Overnight has announced recruitment drives to take on some of the staff made redundant.
City Link went into administration on Christmas Eve and after a failed bid to transfer ownership of the company, announced more than 2,300 redundancies on New Year’s Eve.
Private equity firm Better Capital bought City Link from Rentokil for £1 in 2013.
The RMT union which represented City Link employees expressed its outrage.
General secretary Mick Cash said. “The confirmation from the administrators that they have sacked 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.”
Administrator Ernst & Young said employees would be referred to the government redundancy payment scheme because ‘the company is insolvent and unable to meet these payments’ following over £178 million losses since 2009.
It’s now almost certain the thousands of City Link drivers, who acted as sub-contractors and were not employed by the company, will be treated as creditors and not be paid for December.
Hunter Kelly, joint administrator to City Link said: “City Link has incurred substantial losses over several years. These losses reflect a combination of intense competition in the sector, changing customer and parcel recipient preferences, and difficulties for the company in reducing its cost base.”
On the issue of intense competition, UK courier ParcelHero’s founder Roger Sumner-Rivers said: “I find it staggering that [Better Capital] is blaming competition for the firm’s demise when the market has been growing rapidly for a number of years due to the growth in e-commerce.
“It’s very clear to me that the failure of City Link’s management to invest in IT, alongside failing to integrate their acquisitions and reduce the number of depots they operate, has been instrumental in their demise.”
