city link in admin

[smtplumbing]

Just heard city link are going admin.tell there workers on Xmas day

 

[newcastle phill]

Yeh bad news that for staff.
Wont miss the vans though - what a rotten colour scheme

 

[Ermintrude]

Poor bar-stewards

 

[kris]

Not a wee company either,

 

[REDSAW]

trading since 1969 t/o £300m !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[gasmanrob]

Not nice for anyone to find that out Christmas Day. Especially all those poor gits out delivering right up to Christmas and I can say first hand it's not an easy job at that time of year. I'd have expected yodel to go first as they loose more then they deliver and that's not over exaggerating just look online. It amazes me large company's use them. We've lost a few company's over the years in one form or another.

 

[Leo21]

They seem to have been replaced by thousands of white vw transporters. Watch out for one careful owner inter galactic mileage vans coming on the market.

 

[townfanjon]

Eldest daughter works for TNT , and said 'I am ' not surprised ' .

Fecking terrible news for the workers to start 2015

 

[rocketmanbkk]

Eaten up £40 mil investment. I guess the money dried up.

 

[jase158]

Not nice for anyone to find that out Christmas Day. Especially all those poor gits out delivering right up to Christmas and I can say first hand it's not an easy job at that time of year. I'd have expected yodel to go first as they loose more then they deliver and that's not over exaggerating just look online. It amazes me large company's use them. We've lost a few company's over the years in one form or another.

They are even worse then Yodel, parcels just chucked in the back of the vans!! most items damaged!! They must pay more in compensation then they get in charges!! not surprised at all!! shame for workers though!!

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Image telling your workers on Christmas Day.... that's pretty fecking heartless

 

[Leo21]

I work for a guy who had the job of making hundreds redundant, and when they'd finished they made him redundant!

im the only boss I'll ever trust again.

 

[rocketmanbkk]

Don't sack people on Christmas Day. That's totally wrong.

 

[mountainman]

I subbied to BG a couple of years ago, they dumped all of us on Christmas eve.

 

[Ray Stafford]

I'm not sure what the administrators were supposed to do. They have legal responsibilities that don't take any account of emotion about the date.

 

[rocketmanbkk]

I'm not sure what the administrators were supposed to do. They have legal responsibilities that don't take any account of emotion about the date.

Correct that Ray. No personal holds. They know no employees & are at arms length. They reap the rewards if there are any & get others to do the dirty work when things go belly up.

Poor people but who knows what's around the corner.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

said earlier on the news that the workers found out by listening to the news not by being told which is just wrong in my book.

 

[Ray Stafford]

said earlier on the news that the workers found out by listening to the news not by being told which is just wrong in my book.

I agree with you Steve, but how do you tell 2700 people something without it getting on the news before you get to the last one? If you text or email it, you will be condemned for being heartless. You can't telephone everyone. Its a 24hr a day operation so only a proportion of the work force will be at work at any one time. You can't write to people over Xmas, and whatever you do, one of the first hundred or so will go to the press, so some of the last few hundred will hear from the radio or tv. How can that possibly be avoided?

Sometimes bad things happen without there being a villain.

 

[CES]

As much as I sympathise, there's never a good time of year to be made redundant, but imagine the uproar, confusion and mayhem if they announced admin a week before Christmas? How many parcels would have been delivered? It's sad but life goes on and hopefully the employees find alternative work.. Just don't go into plumbing guys!!

 

[Rickster123]

I agree with you Steve, but how do you tell 2700 people something without it getting on the news before you get to the last one? If you text or email it, you will be condemned for being heartless. You can't telephone everyone. Its a 24hr a day operation so only a proportion of the work force will be at work at any one time. You can't write to people over Xmas, and whatever you do, one of the first hundred or so will go to the press, so some of the last few hundred will hear from the radio or tv. How can that possibly be avoided?

Sometimes bad things happen without there being a villain.

I agree with Scrooge mcduck. **** happens.

 

[Leo21]

I agree with you Steve, but how do you tell 2700 people something without it getting on the news before you get to the last one? If you text or email it, you will be condemned for being heartless. You can't telephone everyone. Its a 24hr a day operation so only a proportion of the work force will be at work at any one time. You can't write to people over Xmas, and whatever you do, one of the first hundred or so will go to the press, so some of the last few hundred will hear from the radio or tv. How can that possibly be avoided?

Sometimes bad things happen without there being a villain.

But we all need a villain, even if it's Dot Cotton.

 

[dancinplumba]

Let's blame Allan sugar, for no particular reason, or even croppie ?

 

[Ray Stafford]

I agree with Scrooge mcduck. **** happens.

I had to make 4 blokes redundant once, just before Xmas. It was a long time ago, but we had a new building, which we had taken under licence - ie we were paying rent week to week whilst the solicitors did their stuff before we signed the lease. We hired the staff, opened the branch and started trading.

About 6 weeks in, I got a phone call from the solicitor saying that the local authority search showed that the council had applied for a compulsory purchase order on our car-park, in order to widen the road to make a dual carriage-way. So if it went ahead, we would go from having a nice tradecounter with a carpark on a single lane road, to a worthless building without parking, fronting straight onto a dual carriage way. There was no other vehicular access to the building.

There was absolutely nothing to do except pull out. At that point in the firms development, signing a lease on that could have bankrupted us, and put the other 20 odd employees at risk. So I went down there, a week or two before Xmas, and made them all redundant. The worst job I have ever had to do. After it was all over, I was in the carpark having a *** when one of their wives came storming over and gave me a right earful. Couldn't blame her really, so I just stood there and took it.

The really sh1te part? The council never excercised the CPO, the dual carriage way was never built, and last time I saw the building it was a thriving furniture store, and still had a great car park.

 

[Rickster123]

I had to make 4 blokes redundant once, just before Xmas. It was a long time ago, but we had a new building, which we had taken under licence - ie we were paying rent week to week whilst the solicitors did their stuff before we signed the lease. We hired the staff, opened the branch and started trading.

About 6 weeks in, I got a phone call from the solicitor saying that the local authority search showed that the council had applied for a compulsory purchase order on our car-park, in order to widen the road to make a dual carriage-way. So if it went ahead, we would go from having a nice tradecounter with a carpark on a single lane road, to a worthless building without parking, fronting straight onto a dual carriage way. There was no other vehicular access to the building.

There was absolutely nothing to do except pull out. At that point in the firms development, signing a lease on that could have bankrupted us, and put the other 20 odd employees at risk. So I went down there, a week or two before Xmas, and made them all redundant. The worst job I have ever had to do. After it was all over, I was in the carpark having a *** when one of their wives came storming over and gave me a right earful. Couldn't blame her really, so I just stood there and took it.

The really sh1te part? The council never excercised the CPO, the dual carriage way was never built, and last time I saw the building it was a thriving furniture store, and still had a great car park.

But you had the nuts to go there and do it in person. That's the difference.

 

[Ray Stafford]

But you had the nuts to go there and do it in person. That's the difference.

But it was one depot and 4 blokes Adam. I think I read that CL had 2700 staff at 53 depots. No boss can be in all those places at once.

 

[gasmanrob]

So why not wait till tomorrow? And if the argument is about cost then bull poo. Those workers will be lucky to see 7p in every pound they earnt in December 40% of them will be contractors, Warehouse costs will still be costed to the end of term and vehicles too. I get there isn't a great time to do such a thing but that's just heartless

 

[Rickster123]

But it was one depot and 4 blokes Adam. I think I read that CL had 2700 staff at 53 depots. No boss can be in all those places at once.

No but to read about it in a paper before being told in any form is a kick in the knackers.

 

[Rickster123]

Ps ray off topic alert but have you tried the jack Daniels Apple whiskey punch? Blinking lovely!

 

[Ray Stafford]

So why not wait till tomorrow?

I don't think that the administrators are allowed to let sentiment get in the way of their legal responsibilities Rob. It isn't their fault that the firm went bust, they are just the undertakers called in to give it a legal burial.

Those workers will be lucky to see 7p in every pound they earnt in December

According to the BBC site, the administrators are saying that all the directly employed staff will be paid in full. I rather suspect that the reason they ran right up until Xmas eve was to fill enough contracts to get the cashflow to make that last payroll.

40% of them will be contractors

We have a CL depot as neighbours, and I think that quite a lot of their people are contractors. But the writing was on the wall - they were sold for £1 last year and their long term losses were widely reported. If you take on a long term contract, don't you credit check your client?

 

[REDSAW]

They are even worse then Yodel, parcels just chucked in the back of the vans!! most items damaged!! They must pay more in compensation then they get in charges!! not surprised at all!! shame for workers though!!

so, who do you think damages them?lol

 

[Ray Stafford]

We have a CL depot as neighbours, and I think that quite a lot of their people are contractors. But the writing was on the wall - they were sold for £1 last year and their long term losses were widely reported. If you take on a long term contract, don't you credit check your client?

Just as a correction - I just credit checked CityLink, and my credit reference agency (which shall remain nameless) said they were "below average risk" and recommended a credit limit of £1.6million.

So I withdraw that comment about credit checking. Even a sensible subby cant be expected to know more than a credit reference agency.

 

[smtplumbing]

John Lewis main contractor is cl. We used them when we used to do courier online service. And one of a mate of mine has a good contract with city link doing online courier so he will be bugged as they do bigger size packages

 

[REDSAW]

think the administrators do things right.
the first creditors are the workforce, 2nd the banks, 3rd the suppliers.

btw, my inheritance comes from a £26m company bought out for £1 then later sold for £---m then went **** up from employing 360 down to just 8 after 3-4 years. so thats no relation of what can happen if the current directors are crap at what they do !!!.

 

[tamz]

think the administrators do things right.

Pay themselves 1st then give the dross to the banks and there is never f all left for anyone else.
Ist time you get one of their letters in you feel a bit optimistic you may get something back. You learn after that you get nothing. I feel sorry for the subbies too and some of them are just a guy with a van. They are bottom of the pile and i bet some are lying out a lot of money.
I wonder if there may be a case to go after the directors personally. You can bet they are not sitting skint! They must have known they were going ti ts up yet kept trading. Not cheap to do tho.