Six depots plus jobs go as PIFC axe falls
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THE NATIONAL Freight Corporation is to cut back the number of Roadline and National Carriers depots. A decision has been taken to close six Roadline depots and negotiations are still in progress over a plan to cut NCL down to 17 depots.
The axe is due to come down on Roadline depots at Stratford, London, Slough, Luton, King's Lynn, Leeds and Newport, Gwent. There will also be a re-organisation of the Birmingham depot; staff and fleet cuts at Liverpool; staff cuts at Glasgow, with the transfer of operations to the Warroch Street office and the movement of the Scottish region accounts to Manchester.
The changes will affect the jobs of 500 people within the Roadline organisation alone.
As National Carriers managing director Brian Hayward was at pains to point out, his company's negotiations are still going on with the unions involved. Roadline management says that it is committed to finding jobs for as many of the displaced staff as possible and it has pledged to keep hardship to a minimum.
The closures will be carried out in the next few weeks in consultation with unions and members of the local joint committees.
The closures are being caused by the company's financial state. In the first two financial periods at the start of this year, Roadline lost nearly £2.5m because of the disruptions to its services.
Even now the figures have not improved, with the com pany still showing a £2.2m deficit and it now thinks that instead of the planned profit of £3m, the company will be lucky to break even.
Commenting in its latest staff paper, Roadline says that the closures are not a question of victory for the management or defeat for the unions, and it says that both sides of the negotiations agreed that changes had to be made in the Roadline group.