Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
The collapse of UK parcel delivery company City Link has led to 2,356 employees losing their jobs. The Coventry-based firm had three transport hubs in West Drayton, Peterborough and Warrington along with 53 smaller depots across the United Kingdom. City Link is owned by private equity firm Better Capital who purchased it for £1 in April 2013 from the previous owners Rentokil. Staff were told that the company was going into administration on Christmas Day after shareholders rejected restructuring plans on 22 December 2014. Ernst and Young were appointed as the administrator on Christmas Eve and after failing to find a buyer, the 2,356 employees were officially made redundant on 31 December 2014.
Some 371 employees have been kept on until the remainder of City Link parcels have been collected from their depots; after which they will also be made redundant. The UK press coverage has included reports of anger around the timing of the job losses as well as speculation that the private equity firm may recover some of its funds, despite employees having to lodge their claims with the government-backed redundancy payments services. In the week between the announcement on Christmas Day and staff being made redundant, officials from the union RMT and a number of UK politicians were urging the UK government to intervene to put together a rescue package however their lobbying was to no avail. The collapse of the company will have a substantial flow-on effect along the supply chain. The official job loss of 2,356 does not include an estimated 1,000 self-employed drivers who were contracted to delivery parcels. Many of the contractors were formerly employees but were put on new contracts which paid the workers on the basis of how many parcels they delivered. The contractor arrangements also required drivers to pay for their own vans, uniforms and petrol. As these workers were not directly employed by City Link they will not be entitled to payment from the government-backed redundancy payment service. Instead, those self-employed workers owed money by City Link will be unsecured creditors.
Update 07/01/2015: A further 230 workers at City Link have been made redundant after administrators Ernst & Young close 51 depots. The remaining 141 employees are likely to also lose their jobs soon.
Eurofound (2014), City Link, Bankruptcy in United Kingdom, factsheet number 78047, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/78047.
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