MARCH 31, 2010 was Bill Rawcliffe’s 53rd birthday. The present he received was wholly unexpected. After more than 30 years on the railways, he was out of a job. For him, as for 1,200 other Jarvis workers around the country, there was little warning.

They knew the company was in trouble. It had gone into administration. But the administrators, Deloitte, had been negotiating with Network Rail to try to save Jarvis.

When Bill and other rail workers turned up for work that day they learned the negotiations had failed.

Bill, a track chargeman at Leeds, was also national convenor for the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union. Hearing something was afoot, he rushed to Jarvis HQ at Meridian House in York. “The place was in chaos,” he recalls.

He demanded a statement from Jarvis managers about what was happening. He was told Jarvis was no longer in charge and that he should see the administrators, Deloitte. “I walked up to the fifth floor and they looked at me and said, ‘Who are you?’ “They then told me Network Rail had rejected their rescue plan. They said, ‘You’re all sacked. You will be getting redundancy packages in the post’.”

It was the end of the month. Many Jarvis workers had been putting in a huge amount of overtime and were looking forward to a big wage packet. A year on, many are still waiting for those wages.

Jarvis workers feel let down on all sides. By the Government, which under John Major privatised the rail industry and set up the system whereby track managed by Network Rail was maintained by private companies.

By Network Rail, which they say could have done more to save Jarvis or protect their jobs. By Jarvis itself.

Some rail workers who retired before Jarvis collapsed saw their pensions hit, Bill Rawcliffe says. And there was little retraining, little help in seeking new work.

About 1,200 rail workers lost their jobs – 350 or so of them in York.

A year on, York Central MP Hugh Bayley believes about a third have been hired to do similar work by Babcock, the company which took over much of Jarvis’ rail maintenance work. Another third work outside the railway industry – often at lower rates of pay. And a third still have no proper job.

A disproportionate number of those, Bill Rawcliffe believes, are from York and Leeds. He talks darkly of a ‘blacklist’ of former Jarvis staff who were committed union members. He has not been able to get railway work since.

“I have been doing it for 30 years, I have every qualification,” he says. “What possible reason is there for me not to have a job?”

Nationally, the RMT union still presses for justice. An employment tribunal is pending, a spokesman said.

The RMT wants redundant Jarvis workers to have their contracts transferred so that they can continue doing rail maintenance work with whichever company is sub-contracted by Network Rail to do it. It also wants redundant staff to get the wages they are owed.

“Everybody involved in the process let these people down,” says the RMT. “It could happen to any other group of workers. It’s an object lesson in just how brutal industry can be.”


The men’s stories...

Bill Rawcliffe

IT HAS been a depressing year for Bill Rawcliffe, former Jarvis track chargeman and union convenor.

Until Jarvis collapsed, “I’d worked all my life, since I was 15.”

He was heavily involved in protests at the job losses, and by the time he managed to get an appointment at the Job Centre, his Jobseeker’s Allowance had been delayed. “It took me nearly three months to get any.”

He was sent to an agency to help him find work. “But all they want to do is tell you how to produce a CV. I know how to do a CV.”

Eventually he found temporary work as a driver. Then the possibility of work came up essentially doing what he had done before, but, with Babcock – if he wasn’t on Jobseekers Allowance, nor working anywhere else.

He was on Babcock’s books for three months, he says – but they couldn’t find him work. “I was left in limbo. It destroyed any prospect of me finding work.”

Eventually he was released, and hasn’t worked since. His grown-up sons lost their jobs, too. One worked for Jarvis, and became redundant at the same time. The other lost his job as a forklift truck driver a month earlier.

Ian Marshall

AFTER nearly 30 years on the railways Ian, 61, retired early, before Jarvis collapsed.

He transferred from Jarvis to Network Rail five years before retirement, but kept his Jarvis pension, thinking it would be safe.

When the company collapsed, his pension was cut by £30 a month. Any cost-of-living increase in his pension was capped at 2.5 per cent a year. And his pension managers claimed he’d been overpaid and, for three months, took an extra £30 off him.

He remains furious that he could have moved his pension when he transferred to Network Rail.

All the former British Rail staff who transferred to Jarvis went with the Jarvis pension, thinking it would be safe, he says.

John*

John was 22 and a leading trackman when Jarvis collapsed.

“It was the day before pay day and even though I had been working in one of the busiest periods we had ever had and was expecting over £3,000 in wages, nothing was paid into my bank account.”

He went overdrawn and is still being chased for debts he should never have incurred, he says.

Days after losing his job, he learned Babcock was to get the Jarvis contract. In June, Babcock offered him a job, but placed him on ‘gardening leave’ until they found a place for him.

The job offer was conditional on him not receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance or finding other work. After several weeks, Babcock couldn’t find him work and said he would be made redundant. He lost his home in York because he couldn’t pay the rent.

“I know my job is still there and needs to be done,” he said. “I am a skilled railway worker and my job has been stolen.”

Stuart*

STUART, 50, had about 20 years as a track worker before Jarvis folded. He worked for British Rail until privatisation, then moved between companies, ending with Jarvis.

Since Jarvis folded he has found work with Babcock, doing effectively the same job, but for much less money.

But it’s a job, he says. “I’m 50, and I wouldn’t get another job. I’m better off than a lot of the lads.”

Names marked * have been changed


What they say...

York Central Labour MP Hugh Bayley:

The rail workers were “very badly treated” by Jarvis, Mr Bayley said. “They were asked to work overtime the week before, when Jarvis knew they had no money to pay them.”

They were also badly let down by Network Rail. The signs were there long before that Jarvis was in trouble, and that if Network Rail reduced the work done by Jarvis, Jarvis would be in “serious financial difficulties”.

Redundant Jarvis workers should have been ‘preferred creditors’, and should have been paid the money owing to them following the collapse.

Mr Bayley recently wrote to Network Rail suggesting it set up a register of jobless former Jarvis employees willing to ‘temp’ for railway contractors. “I have not had a reply.”

York Outer Conservative MP Julian Sturdy:

Former Jarvis employees were let down by Jarvis and Network Rail, said Mr Sturdy. Jarvis employees were also let down by the Government, which could have put more pressure on Network Rail to save Jarvis or reemploy Jarvis workers.

The staff who lost their jobs were skilled. Mr Sturdy says there is cross-party support for a register of former Jarvis workers.

Network Rail:

A spokesperson for Network Rail, a “not-for-dividend” company with funding from the Department for Transport and local authorities, said in an email to The Press: “It is not really for us to talk about employment arrangements between Jarvis and their employees,” before adding: “I assume you have approached Jarvis/ Deloitte for comment too?”

She reissued an earlier Network Rail statement that said: “Network Rail took a number of steps to assist Jarvis, which went well beyond the form and level of support a company could normally expect to receive from a customer.”

On claims of a blacklist of unionised former Jarvis staff, she said: “There is certainly no blacklist – many ex-Jarvis employees are now employed by Babcock.”

Deloitte:

Deloitte were appointed administrators because Jarvis was insolvent. “Many Jarvis employees had not been paid for five weeks and there was no funding available to pay employees or to continue to trade the business,” a spokesperson said. “In the circumstances, it wasn’t possible to give employees redundancy notice.”

The administrators did, however, brief the unions.

Workshops were arranged with Job Centre Plus and Yorkshire Forward to help workers complete redundancy forms and to assist them in finding work. “The Redundancy Payments Service put on a specific team to review claims from Jarvis workers and these claims – around 1,200 in total – were processed as quickly as we have ever seen.”

Department for Transport: No comment at time of going to press.

Babcock: No comment at time of going to press.