First wave of redundancies at Carillion but 919 jobs secured

AT LEAST 377 former Carillion workers have been made redundant as the Government’s Insolvency Service begins combing through the remains of the stricken contractor.

The Official Receiver, who is in charge of managing the wind-down of the company, yesterday said 919 jobs have been safeguarded, with staff transferring to new contracts with other providers who have taken on Carillion’s contracts. The roles are understood to be mostly back office staff who had been directly employed by Carillion. The future of around 18,000 UK workers is still to be decided, with the Official Receiver holding meetings with PWC, which is overseeing the liquidation.

Meanwhile, the Government is today unveiling a £100m package of loan guarantees for small businesses affected by Carillion’s collapse from the state-owned British Business Bank. Carillion collapsed last month, weighed down by a huge debt pile and having failed to agree a deal with banks to keep it trading. It was responsible for a number of construction projects, as well as facilities management services.

Earlier this week, Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, told MPS in a letter ahead of a select committee hearing on Tuesday that Carillion had been “notorious for being late payers” to suppliers.