THE UNITE trade union is demanding an urgent meeting with Ernst & Young, Interserve’s administrators, after Friday’s announcement that the company is being forced into administration.
The entire workforce is facing an uncertain future. Workers will be expected to continue working normally unless specifically told otherwise.
Unite expects to be fully consulted on any potential transfers to new companies.
Following Carillion’s collapse last year, Unite has been warning that similar corporate collapses were inevitable, without government action. However, the government has largely rejected any proposals for reform and continued as though it was business as usual.
Unite has produced a report ‘Ending Bandit Capitalism: Learning the lessons following Carillion’s collapse’, which contains 22 recommendations on how to reform the economy.
Unite national officer Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe said: ‘The workforce are the innocent victims of the greed and incompetence of Interserve’s senior management. It should be the management who are fearful of their future and not the workers, who are blameless.
‘Interserve’s management has portrayed this as business as normal but this is anything but normal. Workers are being asked to deliver vital public services without knowing who their employer will be and whether they will continue to have a job in the future.
‘The government must step in and ensure that services continue and that workers are treated with dignity and respect. Once again we have seen the government’s outsourced model fail.
‘Interserve is the latest example of bandit capitalism and this demonstrates that the government’s outsourcing business model is smashed beyond repair.
‘The government has been asleep at the wheel since Carillion’s collapse and if no action is taken we face more corporate collapses.’
