Bad News for Temporary Agency Workers at CityLink

12/31/2014 - 15:05

In the news this week it was reported that workers at CityLink (the delivery business with the yellow and green vans) received the news on Christmas Day that many would be losing their jobs with redundancies expected after New Year’s Eve.

CityLink is reported to employ approximately 1,000 self-employed or Agency Workers.

Temporary Agency Workers do not receive the same protection that full time permanent employees receive in terms of notice periods. While the reported 2,700 permanent employees can lodge a claim via the government-backed redundancy payments service it is not believed the 1,000 self-employed/agency workers would qualify to be able to claim via this scheme.

Many workers will be worried about unpaid wages for the long hours worked over Christmas especially with secured creditors taking priority over any assets the company held.

The build-up to Christmas and the following sales is traditionally an extremely busy period for deliveries. Customers are believed to be able to pick up undelivered parcels from their local warehouse.

The use of Temporary Contractors for long term contracts has come under criticism recently with there being different earnings potential and protection from employment rights for basically doing the same job. However the use of temporary staff often enables businesses to expand when permanent recruitment is not a viable option.

At Umbrella we give temporary agency workers the option to work through our Umbrella Company where they benefit from statutory employment rights and the protection offered by The Agency Workers Regulations. We are contactable on 0800 121 6513.