More than 800 jobs across the UK have now been axed at collapsed construction giant Carillion – including workers building Aberdeen’s long-awaited western bypass.
The Official Receiver announced yesterday that a further 452 jobs were being lost after the firm entered liquidation, in addition to the 377 confirmed last week.
The Unite trade union said on Friday that several workers on the site of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) were among those to receive redundancy notices, with 29 job losses expected in Scotland.
The Scottish Government also confirmed that “it may not be possible to accommodate all affected” Carillion employees in the company’s two AWPR consortium partners, Balfour Beatty and Galliford Try.
As well as the job losses, the Official Receiver added that a further 100 jobs linked to public sector contracts had been safeguarded.
It said: “We appreciate this will be a difficult time for those who have lost their jobs.
“Jobcentre Plus’ Rapid Response Service stands ready to support any of these employees by providing advice and information so people can move into a new job as quickly as possible.
“People who have been made redundant will also be entitled to make a claim for statutory redundancy payments.
“Our efforts are focused on the smooth transfer of Carillion’s contracts to new providers and we will continue to keep Carillion’s workforce updated as these arrangements are finalised.”
However, GMB trade union national secretary Rehana Azam said: “Loyal Carillion staff are being treated with utter contempt by PWC.
“The receiver told the task force that central office staff would remain in place until April – then this morning we see almost 500 are being booted out.
“It’s not just the fact so many are being made redundant – it’s the callous way PWC are going about it which is so outrageous.
“Some people received emails on Saturday simply telling them not to bother turning up for work on Monday. Others have been given less than a day’s notice.
“And the ones that still have a job are in limbo.”
Economy Secretary Keith Brown told a Holyrood committee last month that about half of Carillion’s 76 directly-employed AWPR workers had been transferred to the other two consortium partners on the project, and that there was a “strong expectation that far more will be taken on”.