Worker ‘lost holiday time’ after being hours late for two weeks
A YORKSHIRE worker has lost out on holiday entitlement because he has arrived for work hours late every single day over the last two weeks while Northern rail services have been embroiled in chaos, an MP has said.
Dewsbury MP Paula Sherriff described the situation as a “mess” and said delays and cancellations had left a constituent losing hours from his annual leave allocation, leaving him with less time to take off.
Ms Sherriff also suggested Transport Secretary Chris Grayling was not up to the task of sorting out the chaos caused by timetabling changes introduced on May 20, pointing to the collapse of the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise on his watch and delayed electrification as significant recent failures.
The Labour MP told the House of Commons: “What a mess.
“And how would the Secretary of State respond to my constituent who contacted my office this morning to say he has already had a significant proportion of his annual leave allocation for the year because he has arrived at work hours late every single day over the last couple of weeks?
“And given the debacle that we have seen on the trains recently – not just with this, wish the delayed electrification, with the problems on the East Coast Main Line, does the Secretary of State believe he has the competence to sort this out?”
Mr Grayling replied: “I would say to your constituent I am very, very sorry.
“We will have a compensation scheme, and somebody has to sort this out and I’m going to.”
Meanwhile, Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman said the whole saga showed that the railways must be renationalised. telling MPs: “I am not the most radical or left-wing member of my party but even I believe that this system of privatisation hasn’t worked, will never work, and it’s time we had a public-service railway system in our country.”