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Jarvis staff face 1,100 job cuts

About 1,100 jobs are to be cut at Jarvis by the administrators who are now running the rail maintenance firm.
Deloitte said that in the absence of further funding, it was not possible to continue operating parts of the group.
The redundancies will affect staff at the head office in York, as well as in Doncaster, Glasgow, Leeds, Newcastle and Peterborough.
Only the facilities management part of the group will continue trading as normal, a statement said.
There has been "a significant amount of interest" in this business, Jarvis Accommodation Services, Deloitte said.
The move means that Jarvis Rail, which is involved in rail engineering, and Fastline, which supplies rail repair equipment, will cease operating.
Last week Jarvis, which employed 2,000 people, called in administrators after bank lenders refused further credit.
Rail unions blamed spending cuts by Network Rail, Jarvis's biggest customer, for the company's troubles.
Last year Jarvis's chairman, Steven Norris, the former Conservative MP, warned that the cuts were starting to hurt.
Stan Herschel, regional organiser at the RMT union, said that talks with Network Rail that would have enabled the staff to continue rail renewal work had broken down over the past few days.
Mr Herschel told the BBC: "It is not as if extra money were needed. The contracts and the money for the work is already in place. We asked that Network Rail simply pay on time and underwrite the future work while Deloitte looks at the Jarvis business. If we don't do the work, someone else has to. The work must be done. It's a safety issue. The majority of the money Network Rail is spending on rail maintenance is, after all, taxpayers'." Mr Herschel said.
He said the RMT leadership was seeking an urgent meeting with Lord Adonis, the Transport Minister.
Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, said: "Yet again, the pain brought about by the cuts programme being pursued by Network Rail is felt by rail workers. The government should have long since intervened to stop Network Rail from laying waste to our rail industry. Unfortunately they haven't and nothing has been done to safeguard any of the jobs or skills lost."
But Network Rail rejected the criticism. "We did not push Jarvis into administration. We are not responsible for their problems," said a spokesman.
He added: "The maintenance work will be done, no question of that. It just might not be done by Jarvis. We have half a dozen similar contractors, and have no problem with them." Other contractors include Babcock and Balfour Beatty.
Network Rail is involved in a bitter industrial dispute with the RMT, with a strike planned for next week.
Jarvis came close to collapse in 2004 after running up huge debts on over-ambitious bids for Private Finance Initiative contracts.
The company had sold off several operations to concentrate on rail maintenance, leaving Network Rail as by far its biggest customer.

Sacked Jarvis workers march on Network Rail

Jarvis workers who lost their jobs when the company collapsed last month are demonstrating in York today against the way in which their redundancies were handled.
About 200 people are expected to join a march which will start at Jarvis^s headquarters, now occupied by the administrators Deloitte, and proceed to Network Rail^s York offices.
Many of the 1,200 people made redundant at the railway maintenance contractor have not been paid for six weeks and have had no indication when they will receive any money from the administrators.
The RMT union, which has organised the rally, is blaming Network Rail for its members^ hardship. It says workers should have been transferred, through TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) laws, to Babcock Rail, the company brought in to pick up the work that Jarvis was doing for Network Rail.
^It is absolute nonsense to suggest that 1,200 skilled Jarvis workers suddenly became redundant when the company collapsed, when Network Rail could easily have stepped in to secure their jobs,^ Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, said. ^Jarvis had several lucrative contracts in the pipeline. That work still needs to be done, and it should be done by Jarvis workers on the same terms and conditions under transfer of undertakings rules, which our lawyers have told us should apply,^ Mr Crow said.
A former Jarvis worker and shop steward told The Times that the decision to make them redundant rather than transfer them to another company would mean that the cost of their redundancy would fall on the taxpayer. The Jarvis pension fund is also likely to have to make a claim on the Pension Protection Fund.
He added that Network Rail could have helped the company by paying money up front for work already contracted. ^We had made the cuts already, 2,000 people had left the company over the past 18 months. We have told Deloitte we would work for free or for dole money but they said we can^t as it would affect our rights to claim National Insurance,^ the demonstrating former worker said.
Deloitte, which was appointed as administrator at the end of last month, has said that it intends to seek a buyer for Jarvis Accommodation Services, which employs a further 780 people. The business is supposed to have generated a significant amount of interest.
Deloitte was unavailable for comment.

Redundant Jarvis staff finish jobs on half pay

Redundant workers from Jarvis are being hired at half their former pay by agencies that are putting them to work on projects that should have been completed by the rail maintenance company, which is in administration.
Rail workers are furious that cheap agency labour has been brought in to complete jobs that Jarvis staff would have done if Network Rail, the state-backed infrastructure group, had been able to pay upfront for some of the work for which it had contracted.
Bob Crow, the general secretary of the RMT union, last night accused Network Rail of putting the health and safety of rail workers and passengers at risk by allowing Babcock Rail, a rival contractor that has taken over Jarvis^s work, to bring in agency workers. Mr Crow said: ^We know that, since the collapse, Jarvis work been done instead by a labour-only agency not only paying rock-bottom rates, but also expecting people to work dangerously long hours on top of several hours^ travelling time.^
Former Jarvis staff told The Times that some colleagues were so cash-strapped that they were travelling for four to five hours from northeast England before working 12-hour shifts for Specialist Engineering Services (SES) on a project at Hitchin, Hertfordshire. They said SES was paying ^6 an hour, against a normal weekend rate of ^12.
About 200 former Jarvis workers yesterday joined a protest march in York from Jarvis^s headquarters, now occupied by the administrator Deloitte, to Network Rail^s York base.
Many of the 1,200 people made redundant in the railway maintenance group have not been paid for seven weeks and must wait for statutory redundancy pay to come through.
The RMT says workers should have been transferred to Babcock Rail, the company brought in to pick up work that Jarvis was doing for Network Rail. Mr Crow said: ^It is nonsense to suggest that 1,200 skilled Jarvis workers suddenly became redundant when the company collapsed, when Network Rail could easily have stepped in to secure their jobs.^
Network Rail said that the Hitchin project had to be reallocated when Jarvis was put into administration. ^The work was completed without incident to rigorous safety and quality standards,^ it said.
Specialist Engineering Services could not be reached for comment.

Unemployed former Jarvis workers in York rally

Former employees of rail maintenance firm Jarvis are holding a rally in York later to mark a year since they lost their jobs when the company collapsed.

About 1,200 people were made redundant across England when talks between Network Rail and the administrators broke down on 1 April 2010.

More than 300 jobs were lost in Doncaster and 350 in York.

Former Jarvis worker Bill Rawcliffe, who is currently unemployed, said: "The last year has been absolute hell."

The 54-year-old said he would be among those attending Thursday's afternoon's rally at the Crescent Working Mens' Club off Blossom Street.

Mr Rawcliffe said: "We went to work on 31 March [2010] and just out of the blue got told you haven't got a job. Within 48 hours we saw Network Rail award our work to another company and we've just been watching other people do our jobs."

Mr Rawcliffe claimed that workers from other parts of the UK were now coming to do rail engineering work in York.

He also said that those former Jarvis workers who had found work in the rail industry were now earning 30% less in wages.

Hugh Bayley, Labour MP for York Central, said: "I think the Jarvis workers were treated very badly. Network Rail could have done and should have done more to stop the company going belly up."

He proposed that Network Rail should set up a register of trained and qualified former Jarvis staff.

He said he would like to see those workers called upon when Network Rail contractors wanted to take on additional staff.

A Network Rail spokesman said: "It is never easy to see one of our suppliers cease trading and to see redundancies as a result, especially when there is plenty of work available and investment in the railway is at historically high levels. However, it must be recognised that a company, especially one in a challenging trading position, also needs to secure ongoing support from its lenders. ‪Network Rail took a number of steps to assist Jarvis, which went well beyond the form and level of support a company could normally expect to receive from a customer."