Union Warns Lessons Still Not Learned from Carillion Collapse

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS still face losing their jobs through no fault of their own with union Unite warning government has failed to learn lessons following the collapse of Carillion.

Thought to be the largest corporate failure in UK history, the collapse of the one-time construction giant has left two significant hospital projects unfinished: the Royal Liverpool and Birmingham’s Midland Metropolitan.

At the time of its failure in January 2018, Carillion had £7 billion of liabilities. Thousands of workers lost their jobs with the taxpayer required to foot the bill for hundreds of millions of pounds of redundancy payments, the costs of closing the company and additional costs for the hospitals.

Gail Cartmail

Unite Assistant General Secretary, Gail Cartmail, said: “The collapse of Carillion and other high profile corporate failures, has resulted in thousands of workers losing their jobs.

“In all these cases apparently healthy companies suddenly experienced financial problems and in several cases collapsed.

“The UK’s existing auditing and accounting system for major companies is clearly not fit for purpose and workers are suffering as a result.

“Despite this the government which has many friends among the major accountancy firms, is proposing to do exactly nothing.”

Reports Due

A report by the National Audit Office into the manner that the government awarded contracts to Carillion is expected to be published in the coming months.

There is also outstanding investigation by the Financial Reporting Council due in the summer, and a separate investigation by the Official Receiver due in 2021.

Gail Cartmail continued: “The fact that no regulator has been able to complete an investigation into Carillion and some are still at least a year from completion is a scandal in itself.

“Despite the millions of pounds that the collapse of Carillion has cost the taxpayer not one single person has been found guilty of doing anything wrong.

“Until there is root and branch reform of how companies are allowed to operate in the UK and the way they are regulated workers will continue to be the innocent victims of bandit capitalism.”

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