CYNICAL WASTE
Workers did overtime on promise of extra Christmas pay
A SCANDAL-HIT clinical waste firm yesterday laid off 150 devastated workers.
Healthcare Environmental Services bosses also told staff they wouldn’t be getting paid – despite doing extra shifts to boost their Christmas wages.
STAFF were made redundant from a firm at the centre of a body parts clinical waste scandal after working extra shifts on the promise of more Christmas pay.
About 150 employees of Healthcare Environmental Services (HES) were called in to the firm’s HQ in Shotts, Lanarkshire, yesterday to be given the devastating news.
The blow came after bosses at the company – who lost UK-wide NHS contracts after being accused of letting hospital waste build up at their sites – sent crushing Christmas Eve texts to staff telling them they would no longer be paid.
The firm have about 400 staff across the UK.
Some Scots workers were in tears at the news, while others said they would not be able to pay their mortgages or support themselves.
One said: “They had us working up until Christmas and tried to get people working into the festive holidays by dangling the carrot of wages becoming available. But there were never going to be any.
“It’s sickening to think that we have been working for nothing.”
Another said of company boss Garry Pettigrew: “He has been taking millions of pounds in contracts and the decent thing for him would be to pay people over Christmas for the work they have done.
“He’s done nothing for staff other than offer false hope.”
HES’s problems first came to light when the Environment Agency partially closed their Normanton site near Leeds in October, with excess waste believed to have reached 350 tons – five times more than the permitted limit.
They were then found to be in breach of their permits at five sites in England and lost contracts held with 17 Yorkshire and Humber health trusts, before all of their work for the NHS in England and Scotland was withdrawn.
The firm blamed a lack of incineration facilities in the UK – a claim which is denied by the Environment Agency – saying they attempted to raise the issue with Government officials before the backlog escalated.
Defiant Pettigrew claimed the business collapsed because they refused to cooperate with the UK Government’s plans to address the backlog by storing the excess waste in “unlicensed” sites – at a cost of £1.4million to the company.
But staff say they were kept in the dark over the state of the business until the 11th hour and those with more than two years’ service will now have to try to recoup wages through the Government’s Redundancy Payment Service.
Yesterday, Pettigrew – who has set up various new companies in recent weeks – called his workforce in to the Shotts plant at three different time slots to break the news, handing each a notice of redundancy. The letter said: “I apologise that there have been no previous consultations on this matter, however there are unforeseen circumstances that have proven to be outwith our control.
“As you know, the unfair Government pressure on our business for failing to go ahead with their current illegal plan, after highlighting the well-known incineration capacity in the UK over a year ago, has resulted in the Government, Environment Agency and SEPA determined to make us quiet and this has resulted in the current situation, where we are unable to trade effectively.” Pettigrew said the firm had been given “no assistance at any time, from the politicians or enterprise bodies in England or Scotland” to try to save workers’ jobs.
Leaving the site meeting yesterday, worker Gary Hawthorn said: “We’re gutted but we knew it was coming. The writing has been on the wall for the past four months and they’re still in denial.
“I’ve got to look for another job. I’m gutted, what with all the time, effort and the overtime, expecting wages to be arriving and they don’t.
“In the weeks leading up to Christmas, we were told the wages were going to be there then we got the text on Christmas Eve, which sealed the fate of the company.”
Another employee, Robert Hanley, said: “It’s dire. There’s people in there crying. There are people in there who are single parents and it’s the only wages they’ve got. Apparently there is over 200 tons of waste lying around in there too.”
Mark, a driver for the firm, said: “We’re absolutely gutted. My mortgage was due to be paid and I can’t pay it.”
Michelle Fleming, 56, who had worked for HES for eight years, said: “I don’t know how I’m going to live.”
HGV driver Kevin Kirk, who had worked for them for four years, said: “It’s supposed to be a witchhunt. But you believe what you believe. Not one of them has spoken to us.”
We revealed on Wednesday how the message sent by Pettigrew’s son told staff to “switch off ” and “try and enjoy your Christmas” after dropping the bombshell news.
We also told how staff had lifted the lid on “disgraceful” conditions at the site in recent days and sent in pictures of a backlog of waste.
The whistleblower said: “If the site does close, the Government and the taxpayer will probably have to pick up the bill of cleaning up the mess.”
Our calls to the company were not returned yesterday.
Councillor Jim Logue, leader of North Lanarkshire Council, said: “This is devastating news for the employees of HES.
“The council stand ready to play a full part in any wider discussions and actions to mitigate what is a major blow to the employees concerned and to the local economy.”
It’s dire. There are people in there crying, single parents.. WORKER ROBERT HANLEY REACTS TO NEWS