151 of the 500 employees at crisis-hit rolling stock engineer Railcare have been told they no longer have a job, and the RMT union is claiming that the announcements of individual names were made in a 'brutal' fashion.
Railcare went into administration after takeover talks broke down on 31 July.
The firm has sites at Wolverton in England and Springburn in Scotland, and had just completed the refurbishment of the Heathrow Express fleet, which was widely praised.
But after a takeover bid by German company Knorr Bremse foundered, Railcare was left in a cash crisis. Administrators BDO had said that the prority was to speak to every employee, 'to keep them fully informed. Manpower requirements at Railcare will depend on the level of customer spending that is committed'.
Bob Crow of the RMT has appealed to the Government to help out with a short term injection of funds. After the news of the redundancies was revealed, he said: “This is appalling news and RMT is demanding to know just what Vince Cable and his department have been up to following their pledges to support the workforce at Railcare in getting through this short term cash flow crisis.
“Yesterday we were told that BIS had intervened to stop the redundancy process and yet today skilled and loyal workers have been told personally that they are finished despite the fact that Railcare has a full order book from the end of the summer. The names of those on the redundancy list were read out in mass meetings in the most brutal and despicable fashion.
“This scandal makes a mockery of the Government's paper pledges to support British engineering jobs. RMT had sought assurances that we would get a meeting with Vince Cable to examine option for rescuing Railcare before any major changes, like redundancies, were made. We are now told that the earliest we can get a meeting with Dr Cable's officials is Monday despite the fact that this crisis has been running all week."
Meanwhile BDO business restructuring partner Kim Rayment said: “Following discussions with customers, stakeholders and employees over the past two days, regrettably it has been necessary to make a number of redundancies at Railcare’s sites in Springburn, Glasgow and Wolverton, Milton Keynes.
“We can confirm that 33 employees have been made redundant at Springburn and 118 have been made redundant at Wolverton. The majority of staff remain at both sites and we are hopeful that continued customer spending will allow the Company to trade through administration. We understand that this will be a distressing time for all concerned, and we will be working to provide what advice and support we can to affected employees.
“There are a number of interested prospective buyers, and the Joint Administrators are working to secure a successful long-term future for the business with the support of customers and remaining staff.”