Workers made redundant from City Link without consultation are awarded money

The City Link base in Coventry Credit: PA

An employment tribunal has ruled that workers who were made redundant from a Coventry-based parcel firm without consultation are entitled to money.

On Christmas Day 2014, 2,727 City Link workers were told that they could lose their jobs. They were made redundant on New Year’s Eve.

Six hundred of those workers were based at the firm’s national headquarters in Siskin Parkway West, Baginton.

The judgment acknowledged that City Link failed in their statutory duty to consult with their employees over the impending redundancies.

Two hundred and sixty of those claimants were represented by Morrish Solicitors and each was awarded 90 days’ pay.

2,727 City Link workers lost their jobs Credit: ITV News Central

City Link - a brief timeline of events:

  • City Link fell in serious financial difficulty and was bought for £1 in April 2013 by Better Capital.

  • By November 2014 it was clear that there were only two options - wide-scale redundancies or insolvency. But employees were kept in the dark.

  • By 22 December 2014, administrators were called in and their appointment was announced in the media on Christmas Day.

  • By New Year’s Eve, 2,500 employees had been made redundant without appointing any employee representatives and without any consultation.

City Link have defended their actions, suggesting that Better Capital were to blame due to “delaying the decision about whether it would invest further funds.”

City Link say that when their final investment request was rejected on 22 December 2014, they could not inform and consult with employees within the specified timescales.